| Dear friend, In 2019, fertility awareness methods got a little boost from an unlikely source—the World Cup-winning U.S. women’s national soccer team. Coach Dawn Scott had her players track their menstrual cycles and each player received an individualized fitness and nutrition program created from her personal health data. Cycle syncing involves tailoring rest, activity, nutrition, and more to a woman’s cycle phase (menstruation, the follicular phase, ovulation, or the luteal phase). It is used to optimize personal wellness, athletic performance, or even professional success. Female athletes, who are at high risk for RED-S (relative energy deficiency in sport), arguably stand to gain the most from cycle syncing. Unfortunately, even at the elite level, training programs routinely fail to take into account what’s healthy for the female body, according to a provocative March 2023 article for TIME magazine by runner and coach Lauren Fleshman. “Sports, as we know it,” Fleshman insisted, “have never been designed around the developmental norms of the female body.” This week, Madison Ayers breaks down for us the reasons Fleshman believes sports place women “at war with their own bodies” and spells out the health problems female athletes are especially vulnerable to.  But all is not lost. Fleshman opined, “If women and girls were placed in sporting environments built around the norms of female puberty and female improvement trajectories, if their bodies were respected and encouraged to develop in their own time, outcomes for women would be entirely different.” In a separate piece, Madison addresses what it might look like for sports to respect “the norms of female puberty and female improvement trajectories.” And yes, the solution involves cycle syncing. A major health benefit female athletes enjoy is decreased inflammation in the body. But hormonal birth control increases body-wide inflammation. In our third piece this week, Caitlin Estes shares the latest research on whether the anti-inflammatory effects of exercise offset the pro-inflammatory effects of HBC for female athletes. As she explains, the evidence is clear—when it comes to health benefits for female athletes in particular, it’s fertility awareness for the win. Action call: do you know a budding female athlete ages 8-14? As one of our articles points out: “Adolescent girls experience a temporary dip in their athletic performance when they begin puberty. This occurs because their bodies shift energy towards sexual development during this crucial period.” How do you prepare and support a girl during this time? We encourage all parents to teach their daughters about their cycles and fertility using our easy and fun video online course. During the Black Friday promotion, 50 courageous parents subscribed to the course. Is this for you or a loved one? Read more here to find out. And if it is, you can sign up here: https://www.naturalwomanhood.courses/ Take care, Anne Marie Anne Marie Williams Assistant Editor Natural Womanhood |
| Sports and the female body: A response to TIME magazine, Part I Why did a former elite runner and coach argue in TIME magazine that modern sports were never designed for the female body? Click here to read the full article. |
| How can sports respect the female body?: A response to TIME magazine, Part IIWhat needs to change to ensure female athletes, especially teens, are healthy? How can sports respect the female body? Click here to read the full article. |
| Hormonal birth control increases inflammation in the body. Do the benefits of exercise offset that increase for female athletes? What does scientific research say about why hormonal birth control and female athletes might not be a good fit? Click here to read the full article. |