A time-out for sudden period. Why not?

« I fought all day, I really suffered. I was not able to work better, no part of my body wanted to cooperate. Today my hormones were against me. »

It was a striking confession of cyclist Demi Volling, after her third place in Liège-Bastogne-Liège, the race she won in 2021 and 2023. She is a woman, she said. And women are getting their period, that causes discomfort. That third place was not that bad.

Fulling is not the only sportswoman who mentions the consequences of the monthly cycle – or sometimes even late to see. Last year, to astonishing spectators, for example, Blood along the right leg of the Chinese Li Meizhen During the Henghui Lake Marathon. No, she was not injured, she said after the race, which she completed in 2:35:07. She had to meet certain criteria of the Chinese athletics union, and did not feel like running another marathon because she could not finish it.

In Feminist circle, Li Meizhen was hoisted on the shield, because she refused to hide something that many people (men and women) turn away. But there was also criticism. A woman wrote on Instagram that she had substitute shame. Go swallowing the pill, advised someone else. Don’t be tired of these kinds of images.

Something similar happened to the British triathlete Emma Pallant during the PTO European Open Triathlon in Ibiza, two years ago. When an action photo of her appeared on Instagram, which clearly showed that she had been ‘leaked’, horror sounded. Why did she wear a light outfit? Who will run when she has your period?

Running during your period is ‘little glamorous’, wrote pallant on Instagram. But it’s nothing to be ashamed of. « If you would write to me that 99 percent of the women you know would be ashamed of this, then that is precisely why I am this part, because there is really nothing wrong with it. So if you have such a photo, save it, keep him, think back to your performance on a tough day, because maybe you can ever help someone else with it. »

I was reminded of Blue balls and other rape myths, The recently broadcast documentary by Sunny Bergman. When Bergman tells the vice police that she was raped as a seventeen -year -old on a Greek party island – where the perpetrator first removed her tampon – one of the detectives pulls a dirty face. He does not find the offense nauseating, but the fact that there are men who penetrate a woman when she has their period. « Very filthy, » he says.

Last year I wrote in this section All that it is a shrinking, but tough taboo: menstruating sports women. They sometimes suffer in silence from menstrual problems. Many coaches avoid the subject. « Then you don’t train enough, » is a more often heard response to the announcement of sports women that they suffer from severe pain shoots or blood losses. It does not benefit the performance.

At that time a lot was written about the ‘leak fear’ of sports women. Multiple tennis players told me That for that reason they saw against Wimbledon, where no dark underwear could be worn under the impeccable white outfits until two years ago. But you didn’t talk about that with other tennis players, said Bibiane Schoofs. Because that is seen as ‘dirty or weird’.

The rules were not only adjusted on Wimbledon. Some teams in women’s football, such as Manchester City, also switched from white shorts to colored shorts, to remove the fear of players. In the English cricket ditto.

In March the discussion received a new impulse when the Scottish badminton star Kirsty Gilmour stayed away from a toilet break for longer than the permitted two minutes, because she had finished her period shortly before her duel against An Se-Young, the number one in the world. She had tampons and sanitary napkin, she said later The Telegraphbut it took a little longer than usual.

Gilmour received a yellow card, which was later withdrawn by the global badminton association. But the stocking was not finished with that. « It is time for our sport to look closely at the regulations, » said Gilmour. Why a time-out if a player gets injured, or to the toilet must, but not when the monthly bleeding comes unexpectedly? In thirteen years of top sport, she had never experienced that before, so the badminton association did not have to worry that the rule would often be appealed.

The French sports scientist Marine Dupuit, who is researching the cycle of sports women, calls Gilmour’s performance « a breakthrough. » « University is a taboo, » she says. « Many people think that periods and girls cannot exercise. Especially mothers in certain cultures, such as the African, have a problem with that, I hear from the athletes with whom I work together. By talking about it openly you normalize it. »

I am curious if there are international sports associations that (also) work with time-outs for period complaints, better known as’Period breaks. ‘ But if I mail the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on that, I get a list of all affiliated unions. Suggestion: call them. Undo -state is not high on the agenda, it seems, which is quite strange when you consider that Several scientific studies show That the monthly cycle has a great impact on training and competitions of athletes.

The fear is that Period breaks Fall in hand. And that logistics is impossible to introduce such a newly acquired right to Sportbreed. « But maybe you should start to open up for the idea that you are creating a system that takes into account the needs of sports women, » says sports scientist Dupuit. « Because be honest: the current rules are often designed by male sports administrators. If we agree that those needs are important, you can see how your sports women can meet safe and honest regulations. »

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