Teams are starting to train around players’ menstrual cycles, but evidence lags behind the hype
In 2020, Women’s Super League club Chelsea announced that it was tailoring training to its players’ menstrual cycles.
The cutting-edge move, they said, would “enhance performance and cut down injuries”.
It’s a seductive logic.
Elite sport is all about finding an edge over your opponents, and the menstrual cycle, much like sleep and diet, is a variable that has the potential to deliver a competitive advantage.
Sam Kerr’s Chelsea is one of a growing number of clubs tailoring training to their players’ menstrual cycles. (Getty Images: Tom Dulat)
The trouble is, the hype on ‘phase-based’ training so far outweighs the evidence.
As one expert explains, women experience so much variation in how their menstrual cycle affects them, it is difficult to implement ‘team-based’ interventions.
“We think the hormonal fluctuations that women have around their menstrual cycle could alter performance for some individuals, but there’s a lot of varied evidence and we are far from any conclusive research,” Hannah Dower, an exercise physiologist and PhD candidate at Victoria University, explains.
“Not everyone feels the same effects, and not everyone feels those effects at the same time.”
Dower is completing an ’embedded’ PhD at the Western Bulldogs, meaning she is conducting research on the menstrual cycle at the same time as working in the club’s high performance department.
Researcher Hannah Dower is completing an ’embedded’ PhD with Australian rules football club the Western Bulldogs. (Supplied: Hannah Dower)
Her research centres on how to support athletes who may be affected by their cycles in a team-based setting.
“When I exercise, I can change my habits around how I’m feeling, but athletes can’t really do that,” Dower says.
“They’re expected to perform, train and have games at certain times.
“I want to help people understand how their menstrual cycles are affecting them, but also educate women to not feel ashamed.”
Stigma around menstrual cycle affects athletes’ willingness to open up
Dower says there is still stigma attached to the menstrual cycle, which can affect an athlete’s willingness to talk about how it impacts them:
“Women have been told to feel weak and dirty and wrong, that they should feel worse at certain stages in their cycle.
“I think that sometimes creates an environment where they don’t want to share what’s going on for them.”
Dower says that even in elite sport, menstrual cycle stigma persists. (Supplied: Hannah Dower)
Combating that stigma is important in an Australian Rules Football environment, with research showing menstrual disorders are commonplace among female athletes.
One of those is Bulldogs VFLW player Tallia Pulcino. A self-described “bubbly person”, Pulcino would often experience bouts of depression in the lead-up to her period.
“Everything was just doom and gloom,” she says.
“I’d feel so yuck. My body would feel so heavy, and I’d look in the mirror and be like ‘gross, I don’t want to train today.’
“I’d have really bad pain and cramps that would make me feel so nauseous, and a lot of the time I just didn’t want to get out of bed.”
Pulcino was eventually diagnosed with Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD), a condition that can cause extreme mood fluctuations, impacting daily functioning.
Tallia Pulcino would often experience bouts of depression as well as physical pain in the lead up to her period. (AFL Photos via Getty Images: Kelly Defina)
But despite the severity of her symptoms, Pulcino was reluctant to open up.
“I would just say I wasn’t feeling well,” she says.
“I’d often just push through, and go to training anyway. I’d feel awful throughout… or at least not perform to the standard I should have.”
That changed when Pulcino was recruited to the Bulldogs, and began working with strength and conditioning coach Gyan Wijekulasuriya.
Wijekulasuriya had been inspired by Dower’s work on the effects of the menstrual cycle on performance, and gave a presentation to players asking them to come forward if they were experiencing troublesome symptoms.
Western Bulldogs players are encouraged to come forward if they are experiencing troubling menstrual cycle symptoms. (Supplied: Hannah Dower)
“It was really good because he just tried to normalise it, as something you didn’t have to hide or make an excuse about,” Pulcino says.
“So I haven’t felt any shame in telling him when it’s affecting me.”
Teammate Ellie Bishop says this made a “huge difference” personally, having previously only felt comfortable talking to other women:
“Women can relate, and they can give you tips, so talking to them is definitely easier,” she says.
‘Communication’ with women is key
Dower says evidence supports the idea that female athletes feel more comfortable talking to other women about their menstrual cycles.
“That’s something I’d love to change, because men are going to keep working in women’s sport,” Dower says.
“Most of the male coaches I’ve worked with… it’s not that they don’t want to listen, they just don’t really know how to help, or may not understand the way the cycle can impact their athletes.”
It’s a lack of knowledge, rather than an unwillingness to listen, that holds back male coaches from better understanding the impact of their players’ menstrual cycles. (Supplied: Hannah Dower)
Dower’s own research — which asks AFLW and sub-elite players to fill out surveys — has shown that it is not just physical symptoms that bother athletes.
The changing hormonal fluctuations of their cycle may also influence how receptive they are to feedback from coaches, as well as how well they can focus on or process information.
But research shows a “disconnect” between how coaches and athletes talk about the menstrual cycle.
“Athletes think that coaches don’t want to talk to them about it, and coaches think that athletes don’t want to talk to them about it,” Dower explains.
“So there’s this dead zone, which is not great.
“The more educated and open coaches are, and the more they talk to their athletes about it, the more comfortable they’ll be.”
And while this may seem like ‘complex’ territory to navigate, Dower says open communication is key.
“We need to talk to women about their cycles,” she says.
“I’ve spoken to so many athletes in the past, and we may not need to change anything for some of them. They just want us to listen.
“They want to be able to say ‘I feel a bit crap today’, or, ‘I feel really emotional today.’ For me, the next question would be: ‘thanks for sharing. Is there something you want to do about that?'”
Bishop says there have been times when training has been adapted to accommodate her and her teammates’ cycles.
“I remember one time last year, a lot of us were feeling shit at the same time, so Gyan just moderated our gym program. I remember him saying ‘you don’t need to do any PBs today, just wind back the weights a bit if you need.’
“Even him just acknowledging how we felt, and not forcing us to do it really made a difference.”
Ellie Bishop (right) says training is more manageable when it is designed to accommodate players’ menstrual cycles. (AFL Photos via Getty Images: Kelly Defina)
While Dower would like to see this happen more regularly, she says it is likely that any modifications would have to happen at an individual, rather than group, level.
“People’s experiences of the menstrual cycle are really different, that’s basically the thread through my whole PhD,” she says.
“But we have enough staff in an elite setting to do this kind of work.
“We are really good at individualising around our athletes based on their sleep, work, kids, uni, school, exams etc. Research suggests that it may be helpful for the menstrual cycle to be thrown into that model… for one more thing to be taken into account if it needs to be.”
