Menstrual Health in Rowing: Episode 113 with Dr Ciara Everard

Hello & welcome to today's episode where we're talking about a new paper looking at menstrual health in female rowing - I'm in conversation with lead author, Dr Ciara Everard, who is an assistant professor at Trinity College Dublin's physiotherapy programme

In our chat, we discussed her recent research paper focusing on menstrual health in female rowers, from Ireland & the US, highlighting how sociocultural and gendered norms influence how female athletes experience and manage their menstrual cycles. The research, involving ex-international rowers, explored menstrual cycle pain and symptoms but found that gendered norms in the male-dominated sport played a significant role in the findings. Ciara explained that female rowers often feel illegitimized within the rowing culture, as they are perceived as weaker than their male counterparts.

Key findings included that 70% of respondents experienced irregular cycles, 80% reported menstrual symptoms affecting performance, and 70% had fears about leakage, though only 50% discussed these issues with their coaches.

The conversation highlighted that while some athletes showed interest in tracking their cycles, there was a gap between existing knowledge in the wider literature and implementation in sub-elite contexts.

Ciara & I discussed findings from a research paper on female athletes, highlighting issues around education and misinformation regarding menstrual health. We noted that harmful discourses, such as the "slim-to-win" ideology where missing periods is valorized, still prevail among younger athletes.

We also talked about the silencing of symptoms related to conditions like endometriosis and PCOS, which can delay athletes from seeking help due to fear of being perceived as weaker or affecting their selection for teams.

Despite increased awareness, athletes still face issues related to fueling and period-related pain.

There's a huge need for continuous conversations and education at all levels of sport, including the importance of sharing personal stories to help athletes relate to the information. Our discussion also touched on the variability of menstrual experiences and the challenges in diagnosing conditions like endometriosis, stressing the need for more qualitative research and open dialogue about these issues (which is of course why I created this podcast!)

“I feel like I’m marinating in the boat... and it just makes me feel gross”: a sociocultural exploration of female rowers' experiences of the menstrual cycle'' https://bmjopensem.bmj.com/content/bmjosem/12/1/e003004.full.pdf

Want to learn more about Menstrual Health - understanding the MC, tracking it, applying menstrual knowledge to female athlete health AND get access to the course ‘Pelvic Health for the Young Female Athlete for FREE?! Then check out my online course, The Menstrual Detective (and all of my other online courses) at CelebrateMuliebrity.com

Until next time, Onwards & Upwards! Mx