'I Was Told By Coaches That If You Didn't Lose Your Period, You Weren't Training Hard Enough'
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In 2019, Scottish middle-distance runner Eilish McColgan was in California, thousands of miles from home, ready to finish her 10-K race at the Payton Jordan Invitational with a World Championship–qualifying time. Months of training had gone into this moment—but it all came crashing down with five laps to go. The bump in the road? A shin injury and cramping from her period, which arrived just before she stepped up to the line. As McColgan explained in a viral Instagram post-race, “99% of the time when I have my period on race day or a few days before racing/training—I run like dog sh*t.”
It was exactly the type of real?ness that’s both hard to come by and desperately needed. Immediately, messages poured in from all over the running world. “I was surprised by the response,” McColgan says. “For me, the conversation was natural. It wasn’t until I posted that I realized it isn’t the same for other runners.”
Later that year, the World Cup–winning U.S. Women’s National Team would go on GMA to credit training with their cycles in mind for sharpening their competitive edge. Fast-forward to 2022 and global sports brands are finally leading the charge to make menstruation just another training factor, like heart rate. Last year, for example, Adidas launched a lesson plan for working out on your period along with a line of leak-proof apparel, while Nike created the Cycle(Sync) program available on the Nike Training Club app. It’s even trickled down to boutique fitness brands, including The Class by Taryn Toomey, which launched its own cycle awareness workout series last year.
“In the past 5 or 10 years, there’s really been a shift where people have realized men and women have different bodies,” says Esther Goldsmith, an exercise physiologist at the sport science company Orreco. “All the recommendations for male athletes need to be rewritten with a female lens,” Goldsmith says—and these new programs are starting to reflect that.
These offerings are a far cry from the days when Nike Run Club coach and marathoner Lydia O’Donnell worked to actually push herself so hard that her cycle would disappear. “I was told by coaches that if you didn’t lose your period, you weren’t training hard enough,” O’Donnell recalls. “That was the culture of sport. Coaches were just uneducated.” This mentality ultimately led to an appendicitis hospitalization for O’Donnell when the overworking and underfueling caught up to her.
Since then, O’Donnell has drastically shifted her approach to her body and her training. Today, she’s the cofounder of Femmi (femmi.co), a coaching company for women runners who want to train in sync with their cycles. She aids menstruators all over the world. “I want to show women they don’t need to work against their bodies,” O’Donnell says. “If we embrace our physiology, we can be better athletes.”
Modern products make for a better first time.
A girl never forgets her first time using a pad. This is especially true if you came of age during the era of bulky, double-winged liners advertised with clinical blue liquid to showcase their absorption power. Thankfully, the days of feeling as if you’re in a diaper are over, thanks to sleek and stylish underwear you can bleed into, menstrual disks and cups, and organic cotton tampons delivered straight to your door. “This younger generation doesn’t just expect better products,” says Denielle Finkelstein, cofounder of The Organic Project (TOP), a period-product company. “They’re demanding them.”
Finkelstein’s TOP cofounder, Thyme Sullivan, spent more than 20 years working as an executive in consumer products, where she witnessed numerous categories go organic or environmentally friendly. “But nothing happened in feminine care,” she says. That is, until more recently: Brands like Thinx, Lunapads, DivaCup, and Flex have become household names. The bevy of choices—with women designers at the helm—makes it easier for people to find a protection method that works for them.
The companies behind these innovations are also taking an active role in busting stigma, starting with the way products are advertised. “Even the blue liquid is a thing of the past now,” Dr. Holmes points out. “We’re seeing that the secrecy and shame are going away.” Take Australian period underwear brand Modibodi, one of the first to depict period blood and stains in a commercial of this sort, in September 2020. (Facebook originally banned the ad for violating its guidelines around gore but retracted the decision later.)
Companies such as TOP are also leading the charge in changing that oh-so-important experience of the first period. One product on offer now is a First Period Gift Box, which features a variety of first-timer-friendly items like liners and tampons as well as educational materials on menstruation, created in partnership with Girlology, a health platform for young women. TOP’s website (toporganicproject.com) also features resources for parents looking to start the conversation but unsure of exactly how.
That very first go is super critical because it’s when a woman’s relationship to her period is formed. “The earlier you have the conversation, the more excited kids can be,” says Trish Hutchison, MD, a pediatrician and cofounder of Girlology. “They’re not grossed out. And then they’re more prepared.” Kinda sounds like the ideal sitch!
Activists are making protection more accessible than ever.
It’s easy to think that menstrual stigma is a problem elsewhere, in other countries, where menstrual restrictions (like being forbidden to enter sacred places or even cook while on your period) may exist. But the truth is, menstruators in the U.S. and other high-income countries also struggle with pressure to conceal their periods and access products that allow them to work and go to school, found a review in PLOS One. “Menstrual stigma is global—and menstrual restrictions are too,” Dr. Bobel says.
In fact, it’s even written into the tax code. Did you know that in 27 states, menstrual products are still taxed, while other medical necessities are not? Shocking, we know. Let’s have a moment of appreciation for the advocates fighting to change the code—and to write new laws mandating access to and improvement of menstrual products. Oh, and they’re winning too.
A major push for change started years ago when, as a law student, Laura Strausfeld stopped in a New York City pharmacy for necessities. When “the ChapStick wasn’t taxed, but my tampons were,” she says, she went on to build a class-action lawsuit that led to an “almost immediate repeal of the tampon tax in New York.”
From there, a movement was born. While Strausfeld developed the legal strategy and built Period Law, a nonprofit dedicated to changing laws, an army of local students and activists materialized across the country. “We got organized,” Strausfeld says.
Since then, 13 states have eliminated taxes on menstrual products. The most recent victory was in Michigan, where the bill enjoyed bipartisan support. Campaigns in remaining states, from Utah to Arkansas, are ongoing.
Meanwhile, progress is marching forward on other fronts. For example, “the cost of menstrual products needs to be borne collectively by the state,” Strausfeld says. “Bathrooms should be providing these products for free.” Most recently, California passed a bill to mandate free menstrual products in schools statewide.
Overall, the movement has reached a fever pitch, with approximately 140 in-progress bills in 37 states that would require free access to period products, eliminate the tax, and require ingredient disclosure.
So whether or not you’re a period activist yourself, everyone has a role to play in advancing this sea change—in greater society or simply in their own home. You can donate to Period Law (periodequity.org) or #HappyPeriod (hashtaghappyperiod.org), an L.A.-based org that supports menstrual health for Black women, to direct your money to menstrual equity. And “speak to the men in your life,” Strausfeld says. “Make sure they understand how menstruation works and why this is so important.” On it!
Major Moments
1870s The first advertisements for menstrual products appear in popular newspapers. The hot buy? Reusable cloth pads held in place by suspenders.
1919 Kotex disposable sanitary pads go on sale for the first time. No more strange straps and harnesses to hold protection in place!
1931 Earl Haas invents the modern tampon. Haas sells the patent in 1933 to Gertrude Tendrich, who eventually creates Tampax.
1970 Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, by Judy Blume, is published. It’s the first book to offer a frank depiction of puberty and periods for American girls.
1972 The National Association of Broadcasters lifts a ban on advertisements for period products on radio and television.
1978 Ms. magazine publishes Gloria Steinem’s famous satirical essay “If Men Could Menstruate” that imagines how periods would be celebrated if men got them.
2010s New consumer awareness sparks the DTC period-products revolution. Companies like Cora and Lola begin offering organic products mailed directly to your house.
2016 Flex introduces the menstrual disk. After period underwear, the disk is the first launch of its kind in decades. (Cups came back into favor in the 2000s but were invented in the 1860s.)
2019 The period emoji (a little red drop!) is introduced on Android and iOS smartphones—a small act that further normalizes menstrual musings in daily digital back-and-forth.
2020 Congress passes the CARES Act, which deems period products medical expenses. This lets people buy them with tax-advantaged health-savings and flexible spending accounts.
This article appears in the March 2022 issue ofWomen’s Health. Become a Women's Health+ member now.
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