Today, on the 8th of March it is the international womens day. The purpose of this day is to bring a focus on issues regarding gender equality, reproductive rights and abuse against women. As a freediver, I want to use this day to bring attention to the gender data gap that exists in freediving.
I, along with many others female freedivers, experience that the menstrual cycle impacts freediving in a number of ways. It makes sense, the hormones estrogen and progesterone varies greatly over a cycle, and these hormones affect metabolism, heart rate, and many other aspects of our physiology.
This is largely forgotten by the freediving organizations, and hardly ever mentioned in courses. I do not blame them though, there is simply not nearly enough scientificresearch done in the area of women and sports, let alone women and freediving. Therefore, I have decided to do some research of my own, by creating a questionnaire on the topic. It is not going to result in a scientific paper, but I hope it can still bring attention to this subject, normalize discussion about the menstrual cycle and female athletes and serve as inspiration for scientists for future studies.
My goal is to get as many female freedivers as possible to answer this, and I will do my best to compile and share the findings.
Click HERE to to go to the questionnaire.
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