What it is like playing a Test on your period
Prospect of wearing whites while ‘leaking’ on live TV is a source of anxiety, England cricketers tell
‘I was the opening batter, so I asked the umpire what were the rules on a drinks break’
When Tammy Beaumont started her period on the first day of England’s Test against India in June, she immediately feared the worst, given that she was wearing the most impractical attire – traditional cricket whites. How would she manage lavatory breaks? What would happen if she leaked live on television? Ahead of her first Test in seven years, it was the last thing she wanted to be worrying about.
“I was the opening batter, so I asked the umpire, ‘What’s the rules on a drinks break?’” Beaumont recalls. “It was a female umpire, so I said, ‘It’s day one’. She said, ‘I get you, it’s no problem, we can cope with that’.
“Literally on the second day, one of the Indian batters had to go off for that reason. I think in the week leading up, everyone was working out whether they were going to come on or not. For a lot of us, being on while wearing whites for a Test was quite a daunting prospect – there was an awful lot of anxiety around it.”
Over the course of that five-day Test, around half of the England team were on their periods. Nat Sciver’s, she says, arrived on day four. The all-rounder had previous experience, having bled on her Test debut against Australia in 2014. For Sciver, undershorts are now a must, but on this occasion there was an additional layer of protection to consider.
“Our doctor actually offered us some medication to… lessen the flow,” Sciver says. Her partner and England team-mate, Katherine Brunt, giggles at her fiancee’s description. It prompts a self-correction from Sciver. “I think ‘thin’ is the technical term,” she says, with a smile.
Talking about periods is still all too often a taboo in sport. But England’s cricketers are on a mission to change the approach to healthcare in the game, having helped set up a women’s health group with the England and Wales Cricket Board. The brainchild of Beaumont, who had an epiphany during the first Covid-19 lockdown while researching female athlete health, the group focuses on closing the bodyliteracy gap among players in a bid to make marginal gains in performance following the introduction of domestic full-time contracts last year. “I started looking at my own experiences of when I’ve maybe felt burnt out, just really lethargic, and couldn’t play well at all,” Beaumont explains, before expanding on her concerns. “If you want to have a baby, how do you come back [to cricket] from pregnancy? I always felt that, even though we’re supported if we wanted to, I would never do that because I don’t feel like I could get back in shape to play again.”
A player survey revealed that menstruation and performance, bone health, breast care, contraception, pregnancy and fertility were the main issues players wanted to know more about. Premenstrual syndrome – a combination of symptoms that women commonly experience before their period – featured most strongly among player and support staff concerns.
“There is not always the same breadth of research across women’s sport as there is in men’s, so it’s important that we talk to the athletes and tailor our approach to ensure they’re as well supported and provided for as possible,” says Dr Thamindu Wedatilake, lead for the women’s health group.
Beaumont was offered the clotting and anti-inflammatory medications – tranexamic acid and mefenamic acid – to help prepare for her Test. The former reduces the volume of the bleeding by increasing the extent to which the blood clots and historically has been used for nosebleeds and
‘Our doctor actually offered us some medication to lessen the flow’
heavy periods. The latter is an anti-inflammatory to ease pain.
“These are very common types of medication – they’re not magic pills. It’s just a lack of utilisation of them, if anything,” said Dr Wedatilake. “These have been around for years for people to access.” The extent of their use in women’s high-performance sport, however, is less known.
Ultimately, though, Beaumont was unable to take the medication because of their tendency to worsen migraines, the symptom she experiences most during menstruation.
Umpire Sue Redfern’s player management during the India Test underlines the importance of gender representation in decisionmaking roles on the pitch.
“If a player needs to leave the field in an emergency – and I consider periods to be – it’s just a human, decent thing to do,” she says of Beaumont’s request during the series. “Women in sport already have it hard enough as it is.”
Does Redfern feel that kit could be modernised for Tests – similar to some of the changes seen in the success of the Hundred – to adapt to women’s concerns? Redfern is realistic about any changes in the traditional form, but feels adamant that girls should at least be allowed to play in coloured kit.
“At that age group, it’s so important that girls feel bodyconfident and body positive and wearing whites is probably not the most ideal situation for that,” she says. “Girls will feel petrified of coming on in the middle of a recreational match wearing whites. I feel quite strongly about this – in recreational cricket – to get more girls involved. I think it’s really important that coloured clothing is the way to go in that age group.”
Similarly, Beaumont insists that any deviation from traditional whites for Test matches would be impossible, but wants age-grade cricket to commit to tackling girls’ participation challenges head on.
“It should be an option lower down, when you’re a bit younger and might have accidents,” she says. “I remember when I started my period, aged 13. I actually asked my mum if I was still allowed to carry on playing cricket. She said, ‘What? Why?’ I said, ‘I wear white, so what’s going to happen?’”
The stars of the women’s game have spoken. Tackling taboos at the top of the game and better supporting those at grass-roots level is what is required for girls and women everywhere.