Study suggests women are better at sport during their period

To reach this conclusion, they collected reaction time and error data from 241 participants who completed a battery of attention, accuracy, and spatial cognition tests designed to mimic the mental processes involved in team sports.

While they felt worse and thought their performance would suffer, participants were on average 12 per cent faster at ball-moving tasks and 25 per cent more likely to pass a test of their anticipation skills.

In other words, they make fewer mistakes and have quicker reactions when they’re on their period.

This explains why women playing contact sports appear injury prone in their luteal phase (between ovulation and menstruation) when they experience a drop in oestrogen – which stimulates parts of the brain – and increased levels of progesterone – which inhibits cognitive function and can slow reaction times.

These changes begin to reverse during menstruation, however.

‘What is surprising is that the participant’s performance was better when they were on their period, which challenges what women, and perhaps society more generally, assume about their abilities at this particular time of the month,’ says lead-author, Dr Flaminia Ronca.

‘I hope that this will provide the basis for positive conversations between coaches and athletes about perceptions and performance: how we feel doesn’t always reflect how we perform.’

The study is the first of its kind to assess sport-related cognition during the menstrual cycle and is part of a larger research project supported by FIFA. Its authors hope that if women understand how their brains and bodies change during the month, it will help them adapt.

‘As suggested by what the soccer players had told us, the data suggested that women who menstruate – whether they are athletes or not – do tend to vary in their performance at certain stages of the cycle,’ says senior author, Professor Paul Burgess.

‘As a neuroscientist, I am amazed that we don’t already know more about this, and hope that our study will help motivate increasing interest in this vital aspect of sports medicine.’