Breaking the Silence: Athletes Speak Out About Performance Impacts of Menstrual Cycles
Image: WSL / Aaron Hughes
In the days leading up to the Surf Ranch Pro, two-time world champion Tyler Wright was not training in the pool alongside her fellow elite competitors. Instead, she was bedridden in a hospital, unable to eat and facing excruciating pain.
The ever-resilient Tyler made it to the contest, but her performance suffered. After being eliminated in the qualifying round, she opened up on Instagram about balancing the demands of being an athlete with the realities of having a menstrual cycle.
“Managing my period has been a journey,” she wrote. “At times it’s deflating physically and emotionally, feeling like you have no say in it.”
Tyler is not alone in her struggle. Although many athletes experience similar challenges, menstrual cycles are rarely talked about or researched. But recently, athletes across disciplines have begun to shatter taboos and speak out about the role menstrual cycles play in athletic performance.
Tyler's story echoes a conversation that has sprung up in elite women’s sprinting. In 2022, British sprinter Dina Asher-Smith had the fastest qualifying time in the European 200m final only three days after having her chances at taking the win in the 100m sprint shattered due to calf cramps. She later revealed that these complications were related to her period, expressing disappointment about the lack of research on the subject. “More people need to research it from a sports science perspective, because it’s huge,” she commented.
According to a 2021 study, women represent only 35% of athletes studied in sports performance research. Training programs are primarily designed for men and not geared towards supporting female athletes achieve optimal performance in their sport.
The result of widespread misunderstanding about the menstrual cycle, says exercise physiologist and nutrition scientist Stacy Sims, is that “women have not been equipped with tools to manage these cyclical ups and downs.”
Image: WSL / Beatriz Ryder
Oftentimes, the medical response for athletes trying to mitigate the impacts of their period is to prescribe birth control pills or pain killers. Birth control pills manipulate hormone levels to mimic pregnancy, interfering with the natural cycle. Not only does the pill come with an array of potential dangerous side effects, it can also act as a performance inhibitor. Painkillers are not a solution to the problem; they simply mask symptoms in the short term. Research has yet to produce a substantial enough body of data to equip women with the knowledge of how to best prepare their bodies for high-intensity sport in accordance with their cycle.
Women represent only 35% of athletes studied in sports performance research.
Some athletes even cease to have periods as a result of overtraining. “It used to be a badge of honor that you were training hard enough, meaning you were elite, that you lost your period,”explained exercise physiology professor Kirsty Elliot-Sale. “But we know that there are so many physiological and performance consequences associated with that and essentially your body has had to make a sacrifice to fuel your sport and not your reproductive axis because there is not enough fuel to do it all.”
In her post, Tyler explained how she approaches training with an awareness of her cycle. “These days my period management looks like a customized training program based around the four menstrual stages, listening and planning carefully for what my body needs — even if that means less time practicing in the water before comps, prioritizing sleep and recovery leading up to my period and being aware this is the time I am at highest risk of injury,” she wrote.
“At this stage in my life I am also heavily reliant on painkillers while I menstruate,” Tyler continued. “They aren’t ideal, but my other option is to have surgery to try to find and fix the reason for these debilitating periods. The surgery isn’t a guaranteed solution and I would have to take time off from competing as well as rebuilding.”
The willingness of athletes like Tyler, Dina, and others to speak out about their experiences has started an important conversation that continues to grow as more athletes join in. By breaking the silence, these athletes are bringing attention to a long-ignored issue with crucial implications for equality in sports. It is this courageous advocacy that will help underpin the fight for more funding, more research, and real solutions.