00:00 I really thought not having my period was a great thing, was something I didn't have
00:07 to think about, some hassle I didn't have to really worry about.
00:10 And I actually didn't get my period for nine months and didn't seek any advice, waited
00:14 for it to come back and then it did.
00:16 But I definitely do not recommend that.
00:19 Now with so much more information out there, I know that how important the menstrual cycle
00:24 is and it's really a telltale sign that other things aren't maybe working as well as they
00:31 can be.
00:32 You're not feeling your body effectively and now it's really one of those major tick boxes
00:36 for me to know that I'm in the best physical condition that I can be in.
00:40 When I probably wasn't eating enough and was put on a pretty low calorie meal plan, I fully
00:45 lost my period altogether and that's sort of now I understand one of the first signs
00:49 that you're not feeling properly and it's not a healthy goal to have to try and lose
00:53 your period.
00:54 We really focus on the fact that it's slightly different for everyone.
00:58 So it's not one size fits all and we really encourage our female athletes to get to know
01:03 what is normal for them and also see if that fits into what is normal generally.
01:09 And then if it's not, we start talking about some of the reasons why it might not be.
01:13 We're quite open and honest with each other.
01:16 If anything, when we know someone's feeling a bit tired or is having a bit of a hard time
01:22 with their period, they speak up.
01:25 We have a chat or we just make the right people know.
01:28 And I think it's important to be comfortable about it, particularly when you're dealing
01:32 with younger players.
01:34 We've got young players in our team, you know, 14, 15.
01:37 It's very, very probably new to most of them, whereas myself, I'm one of the older ones.
01:42 So I'd like to make sure that they're comfortable coming to us, senior players, to talk about
01:47 these things and to make them know that this is normal.
01:52 Especially as basketball players, you know, we know when we are on our menstrual cycle,
01:56 we're kind of aware, oh no, I don't want any blood to come into my shorts, especially if
01:59 we're in our away jerseys, we're wearing white.
02:01 It's a bit different when we're wearing the darker uniforms.
02:03 But, you know, we also joke about it, like, oh, can you make sure you're checking me,
02:07 you know, throughout halftimes or timeouts so I know that I haven't got any blood on
02:11 my pants.
02:12 So it is a little bit more spoken about now that we are older, but I think more education
02:17 can be put into the younger age groups.
02:19 And so they feel more comfortable as well to talk about it amongst their peers.
02:24 Educating male coaches, helping them understand and how they can ask the right questions to
02:30 encourage that conversation, because I think really young athletes would find it quite
02:36 difficult.
02:37 I know when I was a lot younger, I wouldn't ever want to bring anything up to do with
02:42 a period with my dad or any male.
02:47 I think it's definitely getting better.
02:48 Like when I started five years ago, I wouldn't say it was like really openly spoken about,
02:49 but this year it's sort of a waste.
02:50 And a few of the performance centres, I guess, around Australia have like tried to do some
02:59 workshops on it and both inform, I guess, the athletes and I guess coaches as well on
03:04 menstrual cycles and how it can affect them during training and performance.
03:09 And there are actually some apps around that ask you to monitor your cycle and then they
03:14 give you generalised advice around what sort of training you should be doing at certain
03:19 times of your cycle.
03:21 And if you have an app like that, don't use it because it's not accurate.
03:26 We know that generalising advice around time of cycle and training has no scientific validity.
03:33 So we encourage our athletes to monitor their own cycles, absolutely.
03:38 But then we get them to talk to us and their coaches and their strength and conditioning
03:43 coaches about tailoring specifically to them because everyone is different.
03:50 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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