Menstruation Birth Control Mental Health Top Team USA Female Athletes’ Research Agenda

An important preview to empower the presence of female athletes, Emily Kraus, MD, who works as a Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation (PM&R) sports medicine at Stanford Medicine Children’s Health coauthored a seminal publication for the purpose of designing the future of sports science. Launched in the British Journal of Sports Medicine it was a turning point in the evaluation, and subsequent fulfilment of capabilities, of sportswomen. 
 
Speaking Up for the Female Athlete 
 
The research priorities for the study were signed off by Dr. Julie McCleery, the lead researcher of the study while Dr. Kraus at the Female Athlete and Translational Research (FASTR), located at Stanford University as part of the Wu Tsai Human Performance Alliance worked in unison with the USOPC, top women athletes in Team USA and the Boston Children’s Hospital to determine the important questions feasible for research, affecting athletes’ 
 
Athletes from various disciplines of sports constituted the sample of the study by participating in the modified Delphi survey The survey involved 40 participants who ranked the topics and offered qualitative comments. The outcome was the creation of the list of 14 research topics, with the five most popular themes: the manifestation of the symptoms during the menstrual cycle, recovery, contraception, the psychological state of the menstrual cycle, and the connection between feeding and the cycle. 
 
The present research is the pioneering study which involve elite female athletes in the creation of research priorities pertinent to their needs. Thus, by focusing on the voices of the participants and merging them, Dr. Kraus and her team have built a strong groundwork for subsequent investigations that might lead to positive change and the well-being and performance of female athletes in particular. 
 
Social capital is a common term used in detailing how joint research can be effective. 
 
This is actually a very good example of how research has shifted toward welcoming female athletes as participants in the process of gathering information. 

“We provide female athletes strategies for practically implementing the research into their own lives, plus the solutions being scientifically viable which is an important aspect of our work,” explained Dr. Kraus. 
 
Thus, the results of the study demonstrate the urgent need for further investigation of the areas that were previously understudied. Consequently, aspects such as menstrual cycle symptoms and their effect on performance, for instance, was established to be another important area of interest for athletes, but the literature review showed that it was lacked attention, especially in the context of sports science. 
 
The following is what one of the athletes participating in the said study, a USA athlete, had to say: “This is another thing I know almost nothing about despite being a female athlete for my entire life and having a period for 12 of those years. ” “I also have come across so many female athletes who have no idea what normal/not normal is with their period in general or how their body adapts to changes in the hormones. ” 
 
Likewise, topics like recovery and mental wellness, impact of birth control on the physical performance, are essential domains which need more research to help athletes acquire the best proven practices to achieve the goals. 
 
“I am someone who was on birth control for six years and got off it because I did not feel comfortable continuing to take something that impacted me mentally/hormonally so strongly, and again, I don’t think this is studied enough because it only affects women,” shared the second participant from the Team USA research study. 
 
Advocacy and Innovation: Successful and Personal Development of Female Athletes – Beyond the Research 
 
As a participant of the Women’s Health Taskforce initiated by the USPOC, Dr. Kraus is responsible for creating recommendations and manuals on the women’s health particularly regarding the pregnancies and their return to sports. This 16-person panel has been helpful in developing the guidelines for the return to sport after postpartum and for the necessary support to the female athletes at this stage. 
 
Influencing the Course of Sports Science 
 
In the global landscape of sports which is rapidly developing the work that has been carried out by Dr. Kraus and her team shows how research can go a long way in creating the necessary change and raise awareness of the female athletes. By so doing, female athletes do not only receive information that can be incorporated into research but are actually enjoined to help in framing the future of the science of athletics.