Female athletes shouldn’t have to tell their schools about their periods
Menstruation has been stigmatized, made out to be gross and kept secret, lest women disturb those shocked by bodily functions. Of course, this is no longer the Victorian era — or even the 1950s — and changing times in American society have helped make menstruation more of a fact of life, which it is.
But that doesn’t mean young women want to go public when they are having their periods.
The Florida High School Athletic Association (FHSAA) is considering requiring girls to provide detailed information about their menstruation, such as their most recent period and “how many periods [the student has] had in the past 12 months.” That information could then be turned over to schools. Questions about an athlete’s period already appear on the state’s athletics participation form; currently, responding is optional.
That anyone should provide personal health information to someone who’s not their healthcare provider, on its own, feels invasive. When that information is about young girls’ periods, there’s a level of tone deafness and creepiness that the FHSAA doesn’t seem to understand.
There are many reasons why tracking a young woman’s period can help doctors evaluate her health. Missed or irregular periods can indicate not only pregnancy but serious health disorders. But that’s something doctors should determine, not the FHSAA or school officials. In fact, doctors themselves raised concerns about privacy in a recent Herald story. While the Florida Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends collecting that information, the organization says it should only be reviewed by doctors, not school officials and coaches.
Faced with backlash, the FHSAA executive director is recommending students submit only a one-page eligibility form to schools with a medical professional stating they are healthy to play, without providing details. Why weren’t they smart enough to start there? The board of directors is holding an emergency meeting Thursday and should look at that as a
compromise between protecting girls’ health and their privacy.
Florida is among many states that have severely restricted access to abortion, and the discussion about controlling women’s bodies has real impacts here. There’s fear that prosecutors could use medical records against women who terminate pregnancies. Maybe those fears are exaggerated, but
even if they are, the potential for open access to the information is a non-starter.
Medical privacy is something that most Americans understand when they sign forms at their doctors’ office on how and when they want their medical information made available to others. Asking girls to relinquish that is unfair and invasive — and the timing couldn’t be worse.