Unbearable pain, fear of seeing a bloodstain appear, boring fatigue, menstruation and its symptoms are part of women’s life. Including sport. However, the question of the impact of menstruation on the practice of a sport has long remained a taboo, even unknown.
Today, slowly but surely, the word is freeing itself. Especially among the best athletes. A few years ago, handball player Estelle Nze Minko, with supporting studies, denounced this dampening of the menstrual cycle and its consequences on the physical conditions of sportswomen. At the last Olympics, 46% of female athletes feared they would have their period and 60% of them had planned to delay their period by taking a pill.
More recently, on the sidelines of the 2022 European Women’s Football Championship, it was the turn of the players of the English team to unite against the choice of white for their official kit. Equipment “not necessarily suitable when we have our rules. We try to manage it as we can,” points out the forward of the Lionesses, Beth Mead. She herself was immediately joined by French women, like Wendie Renard: “Unfortunately we have it (the rules, ed). It’s part of our life”.
You understand, you have to live with it. This is what Ély-Laure, a young aspiring tennis player from Reunion, thinks. “I have had my period since I was 9, says the girl, at first it was very difficult to adapt. It can be annoying, you can use it as an excuse but you can’t change it.” But now, when she is indisposed and plays tennis, the one rated 3/6 at 16 “gets angry more often” and is more and more “impatient”. However, she tries to adapt. “I tell myself that this …
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