Before I get started on the post, I’d like to share a piece of good news I got yesterday from my publisher. The Blush cards have been completed, and the printer has shipped them! They should be arriving at the publisher’s on Monday! I am ridiculously excited about this, as it is earlier than anticipated. Whee!!
This Chinese swimmer got her period during the Olympics. The day before her race. And apparently she gets debilitating cramps while on her period. Ouch. As someone who (usually) bleeds every month, it surprised me that it hadn’t occurred to me before this point what athletes did about the cramping that (might) come with their periods while during a meet.
Apparently it hadn’t occurred to me because it’s a taboo to discuss it in the sports world. Really? Ok then. Not my place at all to judge. But it certainly surprised me to hear that. But what surprised me even more was what was said as I continued to read the article; only 2% of Chinese people who get their periods use tampons. (In the US, 42% of menstruating people use tampons, for comparisons sake.)
I am a swimmer. Not competitively, but I was a lifeguard. I taught swimming lessons. I love the water. I used tampons from age 14-23. Not always successfully… but that’s a story for another time. Now (when needed) I use a menstrual cup called a Diva Cup.
So to hear that only 2%, TWO PER CENT, use tampons… it boggles my mind. How do they swim? Or do they just forgo swimming one week every month?
Not only do they not use tampons, but a lot of people aren’t even aware that they exist. Or weren’t, until Fu Yuanhui talked about swimming on her period on national television. Apparently someone even accused her of lying about being on her period, because how could she swim?
Hopefully this opens up a healthy discussion about menstruation and the variety of products available, and more menstruating people can have the opportunities that were so long denied to them.
P.S. If you go and read the article, there is more content, including whether menstruation affects sports performance, and whether using a tampon stops the person from being a virgin. The former would be an incredibly long post involving a lot of research that has yet to be done conclusively, and the latter is another post entirely – about what virginity means. I’ve been avoiding talking about this subject because I’m afraid of including too much of my opinions, but I think it’s time for that discussion…in two weeks.
P.P.S. If you are interested in doing a guest post about a topic that would fall under Blush, please let me know! This can be done with credit given, or anonymously. Please contact us at jenericdesigns@gmail.com
Ohhhh yes… the discomfort of having to compete on your period. When I was younger and still competing in gymnastics, I wasn’t using tampons yet. And it was as if my period would purposely decide to appear at the same time of every competition. Have you seen competitive leotards? Imagine the discomfort of wearing a pad, while wearing that leotard and having to do moves that involves you to straddle. The nerves I had that someone (a judge, another athlete, a coach, audience, etc.) would catch a glimpse of the pad – which, come on now, I was in the middle of doing wayyy more interesting things – but the shame and embarrassment of a potential occurrence happening when I was a young teenager was present.
Even when I had changed to tampons, I had the same fear that the string would sneak out (seeing as in gymnastics, we’re moving in a lot of different ways in a single routine, this can happen easily). So as if I wasn’t already nervous and stressed enough about actually competing, I had this on my mind as well.
Fast forward to when I started trampoline gymnastics. For some reason, my period was a lot nicer this time around and avoided most of my competitions, but at this point in my age, I was starting to get bad cramping on the first days of my period. Seeing that my teammates and I trained 3 times/week, it was often likely that I’d have training on that first day of my monthly cycle. I cannot explain to you how awful it is to try and disregard the pain while jumping on a trampoline, twisting, flipping and bending (in tuck and pike positions). It would be to the point where I’d have to interrupt my routine, jump off the trampoline, excuse myself to the washroom and wait for the non-tolerable cramps to pass so that I could continue with practice with the tolerable cramps.
I’ve heard through word of mouth that being on your period can enhance performances, but I’ve never actually looked into research to see if that’s valid. In any case, I find it very hard to believe my performance would be enhanced if I were to be competing on that first day that gives me awful cramps. Seeing that Chinese swimmer hunched over after her race because of period cramping, I thought ‘Omg that sucks so much, she has a disadvantage to others… at the freaking Olympics!’
Anyway, all this being said, in my 11 years in gymnastics and my 4 years in trampoline, my coaches were always female and very rarely did we have boys on our teams (they were more present once I was in trampoline), but maybe for that reason, it was never taboo for us to talk about our periods. If anything, we were forced to. Our coaches watched us like hawks. They’d notice if our performance was off, sometimes even before we even did! And luckily, having female coaches, they would be very understanding, and give us the breaks/rest we needed.
I realize that I was lucky and had things been different (i.e. I had a male coach, the team was made up of mostly males, my female coaches weren’t as open with us, etc.), then the topic of periods very well could have been taboo in my sports world. Anyway, so that was a lot of blabbing on, but that’s my personal experience related to this topic. 🙂
Thank you for sharing your personal experience! That sounds incredibly painful, to do gymnastics while cramping.
I’m fortunate… Only twice did I get cramps so bad that I threw up. The rest of the time they allowed me to function almost normally.