In top-level sport, the rules are still highly taboo

“I am a professional handball player, French national. I have been playing the best sport for over 10 years and last year for the first time I was asked about my period. “This is how, in early April 2020, handball player Estelle Nze Minko, started a cutting letter open, published on the elementary rules website The high-level athlete was moved by the lack of consideration of sports structures, clubs and coaches for an important part of women’s health, too often neglected, or even made simply taboo.

In sport, the rules remain taboo

A reality that, according to her, unfortunately has not changed, as she deplores in an interview Worldreleased on October 20.

My call caused a wake up call. (…) But, in practice, nothing has changed. No devices were installed, neither in my Györ club nor in the French team.

Already in February 2017 the newspaper The group he was trying to make a breakthrough in this topic by publishing a survey aimed at “breaking taboos” about menstruation. But it seems that inertia is in order. “With France, the context is equally favorable. There is good will and the topic is not taboo, at least among the girls and the management. continues Estelle Nze Minko in her interview with World. However, she remains convinced that high-level sportsmen have a role to play in the evolution of mentalities:

Indeed, the ball is in our court. It is up to the players to take steps to make things happen. A high-level player devotes 80% of his time to his club and only 20% to his selection. In France we lack the time to implement concrete actions. It is rather at the club level that we should act …

Training adapted to the menstrual cycles of the players

And France would do well to follow the example of some more advanced countries in this field, by taking small and very simple actions. We recall, for example, the American women’s soccer team, which had benefited, during the 2019 World Cup, from training adapted to the menstrual cycles of the players.

I hear from some of my teammates that Montenegro is one of the most advanced countries. The rules are discussed at national team rallies. The Norwegians have also set up a program to study the cycle of each of their players playing internationally.

However, these advances are still far from sufficient. Especially since French sport seems to have come a long way: we remember in particular the new dress code that imposed white in Wimbledon, a source of stress for players during periods of menstruation. What could be just a detail obviously is not, and above all the symbol of a long path towards a consideration of the taboo of the rules in high-level sport.

As Estelle Nze Minko points out The worldit would also be appreciated to be able to benefit from a benchmark study on rules and high-level sport that achieves scientific unanimity:

Above all, it would require accessible studies by a 14-15 year old young woman, because it is at this age that the questions related to menstruation arise. The issue of menstruation can also be a gateway to discuss other related topics that we never talk about, such as amenorrhea (absence of menstruation), endometriosis or urinary loss. Beyond top-level sport, women’s well-being is at stake.

Cover image: Unsplash / Marino Bobetic