Oh surprise! High-level athletes also have their periods and the symptoms they cause can seriously handicap them, or even penalize them in their practice. One taboo, two taboos, three taboos? We stopped counting. Juliana Antero too, who decided to take advantage of the Olympics at home to launch new research on the menstrual cycle of high-level athletes.
For once, the idea does not come from the research labs but from the high-level sportswomen themselves, and from a well-known in France, particularly by fans of the little sticky ball, Estelle Nze Minko. The reigning world and Olympic champion, captain of the France team, had perhaps not measured the extent to which her voice would carry. “There is a significant gap between research on men and women, and it is the same for sportsmen and women,” explains Juliana Antero, high-level sports researcher, attached to the Insep laboratory.
To put it simply, in studies of elite athlete performance, only 35% of subjects are women. And obviously, the female specificity of the menstrual cycle does not appear in any research even though we know that hormonal fluctuations affect various performance factors. This prevents us from individualizing and optimizing women’s training as best as possible.
The menstrual cycle and its influence on high-level performance
Let’s rewind, it’s 2020, end of the first confinement, the handball player, jack of all trades, in addition to creating her company, publishes an article on the Basic Rules website, the first French association to fight against menstrual poverty and the taboo of periods, which begins with “I am a professional handball player, French international. I’ve been playing high-level sport for over ten years and I was asked about my periods for the first time last year. Its goal ? “Deconstruct the myth of the perfect sportswoman” and put her “small notoriety as a professional handball player at the service of others by passing messages”, as she confided to 20 minutes.
For Juliana Antero, who had “a strong desire to fill in the gaps on female physiology”, reading this message was a revelation. “I say to myself “banco, I have to start with the menstrual cycle””. And more precisely on the influence it can have on the performance of professional athletes. “Since 2020, we have followed 130 high-level athletes,” specifies the researcher.
Menstrual cycle symptoms to treat
And the first observations are there: periods are not the only ones to have an impact on performance, it is the entire menstrual cycle which is important. By collecting data and quantifying volumes and intensity with athletes, Juliana Antero’s team of seven researchers at Insep was able to draw several conclusions. “The most common symptoms such as cramps in the lower abdomen, increased fatigue not linked to sport, diarrhea and bloating for natural cycles and headaches for menstruation on the pill, have a strong impact on the training of high-level athletes and are accentuated by high-intensity practice,” explains the researcher. If she insists on the importance of not generalizing, she managed to identify three groups:
“ Those whose cycle is stable in all phases, the lucky ones, for which it is not a parameter to take into account; those who have a problem such as endometriosis or a poorly adapted pill, for whom medical treatment is recommended; and those who have a healthy cycle, but experience symptoms at certain times of their cycle, and for whom it is necessary to adapt training. » »
As she explains, for the last two groups, the symptoms experienced are reinforced by intensive practice. “They are used to training with small injuries, which do not prevent them from practicing. But when there is one of the above symptoms, the pain from small musculoskeletal injuries is also more pronounced.” It is therefore essential to treat the symptoms. “Overall, on a scale of 1 to 10, athletes rate the pain of their symptoms at 3. But even mild, they reduce the quality of training and they come back every month. All in all, over the course of a year, it’s been about a month that hasn’t been very high quality. When in addition, the symptom observed is increased fatigue, there is an increased risk of injury.”
When is peak performance?
Would there then be an ideal period to perform? “The important thing is to observe your cycles, to understand them and then consider them as a lever for performance in the same way as nutrition, recovery or training planning,” continues the researcher. And avoid, like the swimmer Fu Yuanhui at the Rio Games or the marathon runner Lonah Chemtai Salpeter in Tokyo, having to endure them in the middle of a competition. Both had experienced extremely painful cramps at the time of their competition which had greatly affected their performance, as they had also declared.
“High intensity when the athlete experiences symptoms linked to their menstrual cycle increases period pain,” says Juliana Antero. While moderate intensity contributes to the release of dopamine and increased blood flow to the uterine region where contractions due to cramps cause hypoxia in the muscles.” To perform on D-day, you must therefore manage to reduce symptoms as much as possible.
The pill, a miracle solution?
And if, like some coaches, you wonder why we don’t put all athletes on the pill, a solution to reduce the number of period pains, have a better readability of the athletes’ cycle, or even anticipate the schedule of the Games this summer, Juliana Antero warns of the risks associated with taking hormones. “If the athlete has disorders like endometriosis and cannot train for 3-4 days a month due to severe pain, the pill is beneficial because it will stabilize the cycles and give the possibility of recovery. train all the time.”
But the contraceptive pill also has an effect on hormone levels, notably estrogen and testosterone, two molecules inseparable from the performance of athletes. “Some athletes are particularly sensitive to the reduction of estrogen for their performance. For them, the pill therefore has very negative effects.” As is often the case in experimental research, the road is long to find the ideal solutions to implement. “Every athlete must learn to know their cycle well. And we also need to send the message to coaches so that they adapt.”