The Female Body and Health Education, Or The Lack Thereof

This blog post was written as part of my 12 week internship at Pulse Social, where part of my role was to write and produce blog posts surrounding different topics within sports.

------

It has been common knowledge for some time now how the female body is comparatively different to the male body in the ways it functions and reacts to different training and dietary methods.

Many debates have taken place on the topic of how reflective the health education system is on these natural differences in the human body based on gender that people receive from as young as children, to those who then pursue a career into the sports or health care industry, and to those who do not.

On May 28, GOV.uk released an article stating how there is a strong need for greater focus on women’s health and how the Government have issued a “call for evidence” by the June 13 to help them come up with a “Women’s Health Strategy”, which has already received over 80,000 responses.

The article said: “the impact of female-specific health conditions, such as heavy menstrual bleeding, endometriosis, pregnancy-related issues and the menopause on women’s lives is overlooked”.

Similarly, a 2019 study by the UK Strength and Conditioning Association, Considerations for coaches training female athletes, has also explored this topic but with a particular focus on the woman’s menstrual cycle.

The UKSCA study said: “Most training programmes/interventions are based upon research on men: women have been considered physiologically too variable, with the menstrual cycle deemed to be a barrier for inclusion with potential interference to results.”

The study explored in-depth how the menstrual cycle works, how it impacts the female body, how oral contraceptives work with the menstrual cycle and how this collectively impacts sporting performance.

However, they found that the impact of oral contraceptives on sporting performance is difficult to interpret due to “many factors”, one of which being the “lack of standardisation of oral contraceptives used in research studies”.

There is clearly a worrying lack of information, knowledge and understanding surrounding the female body and it begs the question of how this impacts the quality of professional health advice, sports coaching and personal training that can be given.

After all, without all the facts, how can the dietary and fitness methods that health and fitness professionals use be tailored to the individual?

By Abby K Lake

------

Read the blog post at Pulse Social: https://pulsesocial.co.uk/blogs/f/the-female-body-health-education-or-the-lack-thereof