This is one of the biggest conversations in women's sport.

Does the menstrual cycle change performance?

Are players more likely to get injured around ovulation?

Should training change throughout the month?

There are genuine physiological reasons for asking these questions.

But there are also some very confident claims online that go much further than the science currently allows.

Here is what we think players should know.

Female physiology matters

For a long time, much of sports science was built using predominantly male participants.

That is improving.

But female athletes are still less well represented, and even studies involving women often do not properly account for menstrual status or ovarian hormones.

So when somebody says there is no evidence, we need to be careful.

Sometimes that means a question has been studied properly and no effect has been found.

Sometimes it means we simply do not have enough good research yet.

Those are not the same thing.

Can your cycle affect performance?

It can affect how you feel. And how you feel can clearly affect football.

Pain, poor sleep, bloating, headaches, fatigue or feeling unwell can influence a training session or match.

The harder question is whether the hormonal phases themselves reliably change things like sprint speed, power, endurance or agility.

At the moment there is no single pattern that applies to everyone.

Some football studies have found small differences in certain performance measures at particular points in the cycle. Many have found no meaningful difference.

Our advice is therefore not that hormones make no difference. And it is not that your cycle determines your performance.

It is this: Your cycle may influence you, so learn your individual response.

What about ACL injuries?

This deserves careful explanation.

Female football players have a significant risk of ACL injury.

Hormones such as oestrogen and relaxin have been investigated because they may influence tissues including ligaments.

Older research suggested that ACL risk might vary across the menstrual cycle. More recent research has shown that the relationship is much more complicated than simply saying ovulation equals loose ligaments equals injury.

Hormones may be one factor. Strength, movement mechanics, fatigue, previous injuries, playing surface, training exposure, landing technique and many other things also contribute to injury.

We therefore do not recommend reducing a player's football simply because she is thought to be ovulating.

So what should you do?

Focus on the things we know are worth doing.

  • Warm up properly
  • Build strength
  • Practise good landing and movement technique
  • Increase training loads sensibly
  • Recover
  • Sleep
  • Fuel properly
  • Speak up about pain and injuries early

Structured neuromuscular training programmes have good evidence behind them in football injury prevention.

These things matter regardless of cycle phase.

What if I feel completely different at certain times?

Pay attention. Individual experience matters.

If you repeatedly notice that your legs feel unusually heavy at one point in your cycle, or that you always feel brilliant in training around another part, or that you sleep badly just before your period, write it down.

Over time that information may help you manage your preparation.

We are not trying to remove hormones from football. We are trying to use menstrual information intelligently.

Feeling tired does not automatically mean hormones

This is another important point.

If a player looks exhausted, it could be her period. It could also be poor sleep, school stress, illness, not eating enough, heavy training, iron deficiency or something else entirely.

Do not blame every bad day on the menstrual cycle.

Persistent tiredness, dizziness, breathlessness or feeling unusually weak deserves attention.

For players who menstruate, heavy bleeding can also contribute to iron loss.

Female players are not fragile

Understanding female physiology should make sport better for girls. It should not create another reason to hold them back.

The aim is not to convince players that there is a dangerous week every month.

It is to give them better information about their own bodies.

The LTM takeaway

Hormones matter. Injury prevention matters. Individual patterns matter. A calendar alone cannot tell you how your body will perform.

Sources and further reading

  • England Football Female Health Hub
  • UEFA Consensus Statement on Menstrual Cycle Tracking in Women's Football
  • Systematic reviews of menstrual cycle effects on football performance
  • Research on reproductive hormones and ACL injury risk
  • Football neuromuscular injury prevention research

This article provides general educational information and does not replace individual medical advice or club safeguarding procedures.