2024 Olympics: does the menstrual cycle affect the performance of female athletes?

“ I feel like I didn’t swim very well today. (…) Actually, my period started last night, so I feel very weak and very tired. But this is not an excuse. » This statement by Fu Yanhui, a Chinese athlete, dates back to 2016. During the Rio Olympics, she did not win the final of the women’s 4×100 meters due to its rules.

Everyone knows that in the world of sport, especially at a high level, menstruation is not an excuse for poor performance. When in reality, the menstrual cycle impacts the health and performance of female athletes. So you should already know that 80% of women suffer from menstrual pain, of varying intensity of course, and 1 in 10 women suffer from endometriosis. Added to this is the fear of staining your clothes. And high-level athletes, the ones we will see at the Olympics next July, are no exception. The athletes are therefore not in the best mood. With light or very heavy menstruation, with or without endometriosis, everyone is affected by this topic.

In France, since 2021, two doctors from INSEP have started the program Empower’Her. This focuses on the general impact of the menstrual cycle on the physical condition of female athletes. But concretely What do doctors actually study? We met Juliana Antero, INSEP researcher and program coordinator, and Audrey Merle, a triathlete who has been participating in this program for several months.

What is the Empow’Her program?

Giuliana Antero. Enhance it is a research program that started in 2021 and will end in the summer of 2024. Our goal is to produce scientific knowledge on a topic, where unfortunately very few studies exist. There are major gaps in everything that pertains specifically to the physiology of the female athlete. During the program, various data will be collected from the athletes, both when they wake up via an application that they will have to fill in every morning, and during training. All this data will then be analyzed by a series of experts. The results, which are individual, will allow us to know theimpact of the different phases of the menstrual cycle. Menstruation has always been taboo. The Empow’Her program contributes to free speech on this topic in top-level sport.

Giuliana Antero. All topics for which information and data are lacking create taboos. Once we start talking, studying and above all the people around us know how to react to the information provided by athletes, the topic will be taken into consideration and will become less taboo. All symptoms such as digestive disorders, bloating, cramps or even increased tiredness will no longer be taken lightly by trainers. These symptoms influence women’s sports practice.

In major competitions like the Olympics, is it better to move the rules?

Audrey Merle. There are proposed solutions to shift the rules. Some pills you can take continuously. I tried it and it was a disaster. I was in a lot of pain. In fact, I didn’t necessarily realize it at first, before I talked about it. I thought it was normal and that everyone had the same thing. And in fact, this was not the case. It was supposed to stop my period and it ended up not stopping it at all. It was even worse. It was even more violent and even more recurring. So after 7-8 months, I finally stopped.

The results of the Empow’Her program, which has the 2024 Olympics as its ultimate goal, have not yet been published. We will have to wait until the end of the Olympic Games to know the definitive results of the program. But one thing is certain: the lessons that Insep doctors will learn will contribute to advancing the understanding of the impact of the menstrual cycle on women’s sporting performance.

For the moment the Empow’Her program has not been extended after the Olympics. So whether it’s Juliana Antero or Audrey Merle, they hope this project still exists, even after the summer of 2024.

And you, how do you connect your sports practices with your menstrual cycle?