Imagine this scenario. You are a coach and you have 12 badminton athletes training with you. All are 18 years old. Six of them are boys, six of them are girls.

Now, think about this.

Should the on-court training be the same for them?

Should the strength & conditioning be the same?

Is one group more prone to injuries than the other?

To answer all these questions, we need to consider one important process which is irrelevant to male players, but which female athletes undergo – The menstrual cycle.

While athletes like PV Sindhu have spoken about their experience during periods and it's effects on performance, but for most people involved in playing or coaching badminton, the topic of 'periods' is still treated as taboo!

Here is an attempt by badmintoo.com to demystify the menstrual cycle for all.

What is the menstrual cycle (MC)?

‘Menstrual cycle’, ‘Time of the month’, ‘Menstruation’, ‘Periods’, ‘Chums’, all refer to natural hormonal events happening every month in the life of a female. It is an attempt by the body to prepare her uterus for potential pregnancy. In this cycle there is a fluctuation of 4 hormones such as:

1. Oestrogen

2. Progesterone

3. Follicle stimulating hormone

4. Luteinising hormone


MC can be roughly divided into 4 phases depending on the physiological changes in the female’s body. These phases are:

1. Menstruation

2. Follicular phase

3. Ovulation

4. Luteal phase

Refer this figure below: 

Changes caused by these hormones

Several studies have found that oestrogen has neuroexcitatory effects that is; it prompts increased firing of neurons, which leads to more signals being sent to the muscles, thereby leading to increased strength and power. On the other hand, progesterone has the exact opposite effects on nerves, therefore less signals being relayed to muscles, leading to reduced force production. Therefore, in the 2-week period after menstruation when oestrogen is abundantly available, there is an increase in power and strength production, whereas in the 2 weeks leading up to menstruation, there is a reduction in strength and power due to the dominance of progesterone in this phase.

In terms of muscle and tendon stiffness, presence of oestrogen leads to reduced stiffness and therefore, less chances of soft tissue injuries in the phase where oestrogen dominates the stage. Moreover, female athletes are more prone to injuries than male athletes due to factors such as anatomical, hormonal, neuromuscular, and biomechanical differences. MC-related hormonal and physiological changes could be considered as an intrinsic factor for injuries in females. Research indicates that changes that occur as a female athlete moves through puberty may lead to higher injury rates.

These are only few of the key changes that hormones bring about in a female’s body, there are several other changes which need to be researched.

MC research in badminton and other sports

Badminton has multiple complex movements like two footed jumps, jump outs, front and side lunges, quick changes of direction, quick shoulder and wrist, rapid eye-hand coordination, and adequate sense of body position. The sport requires a combination of mental, physical, tactical and technical skills. However, the sport has its fair share of injuries. In the London Olympics (2012) and Rio Olympics (2016), badminton was one of the most injurious non-contact sports, with non-contact ACL injury as the most common injury reported. For example, ACL injuries accounted for 37% of all badminton injuries of which majority were sustained by female athletes. Thus, they were at a higher risk of non-contact ACL injuries than their male counterparts. Further research is needed to understand the reason for this gender disparity.

While there is little research on effects of MC for badminton athletes specifically, there are some insights that we can derive from research in other sports.

Over 90% of menstruating exercising women experience MC-related symptoms (e.g., changes in mood, menstrual cramps, fatigue, lower back pain), with 50–67% of elite athletes perceiving their exercise performance to be disrupted by their MC. Studies report that athletes experienced detriments in performance in the early follicular and late luteal phases.

A recent narrative review (Carmichael et al. 2021) attempted to collate information regarding effects of MC on athletes’ performance. They analysed 40 trials, and concluded that, aerobic performance is likely best early in the MC, and anaerobic and strength performance may be best in the ovulatory phase. Dominance of oestrogen in the early parts of MC is probably the reason for these findings. Strength and aerobic performance may be worst in the late luteal phase, which is dominated by progesterone which reduces nerve firing.

Talking about individual differences in athletes, it is important to understand that there are differences in the MC-related symptoms faced by each athlete. Symptoms also differ on an intra-cycle basis, where an athlete could perceive symptoms and its effect on performance differently in different months and different phases of the cycle. These differences is symptoms are potentially due to various factors like stress, change in nutrition, change in training regimes etc. Therefore, tracking symptoms and events around the cycle is essential to structure training programs accordingly.


What are other sports doing to address MC?

Badminton is not alone in navigating the challenges of the menstrual cycle. Teams in various sports have successfully integrated cycle tracking and adjusted training plans accordingly. Here are a few examples…

The England women’s hockey team, who won a bronze at the London Olympics, had been tracking their periods. Their strength and conditioning coach reportedly monitored their cycles and modified their training load accordingly. The US Women's National Soccer Team attempted a similar approach of tracking their cycles and symptoms and tailoring their workout plans. This strategy led to their history-making performance at the 2019 World Cup.

Elite sporting organisations, like Chelsea Football Club and the United States’ Swimming Teams, have begun using a commercial smartphone app (FitrWoman) to track athletes’ MCs and their symptoms. Coaches can access this data to identify changes in an athlete’s performance in different phases of the MC. When cyclic changes in sleep, recovery and performance had occurred, individual strategies like modifications to the athletes’ sleep habits, training, diet or lifestyle factors were employed.

Awareness campaigns like the English Institute of Sport’s SmartHer campaign have been launched in 2019 to educate coaches, physiotherapists and athletes about MC. It aims to help athletes feel comfortable talking about their MC with coaches and how the cycle affects their performance.

Badminton athletes and coaches can definitely be inspired by the tracking apps and training modification techniques used by other elite sporting organisations. Advocating cycle tracking, and symptom logging to understand each individual’s profile. Mitigation of negative symptoms by appropriate multi-disciplinary non-pharmacological interventions can help athletes to avoid routine use of analgesics and anti-inflammatory drugs.


Key takeaway

EDUCATE and normalise talking about MC and its effect on performance in badminton. Educate both athletes and coaches to be aware of the language they use when addressing negative symptoms related to the cycle, to avoid artificially creating or reinforcing a barrier. Put simply, education should be used to enable and empower, not limit.