Only 10% Of Coaches Are Doing This For Female Athletes — Despite 86% Saying They Would
You know your body can feel different from one week to the next. A hard workout feels completely manageable one week, then your energy, sleep, or recovery seem a little off the next.
If you're wondering whether your menstrual cycle has anything to do with it, you might expect your coach to be part of that conversation. But for many female athletes, it never happens.
A new survey of coaches looks at how coaches think about menstrual-cycle information and whether they actually use it when working with female athletes.
About the study
Researchers surveyed 261 active coaches across Switzerland, from local clubs to national teams, in sports including soccer, handball, swimming, rowing, skiing, and track and field.
They answered questions about their knowledge of the menstrual cycle, their views on using cycle information in training, and how they would respond if an athlete faced a higher injury risk at a particular point in the cycle.
Hormonal changes throughout the cycle may affect energy, mood, fatigue, and injury risk, which is why this conversation is happening at all. But the research is still evolving.
There isn't strong evidence that every athlete should change training based on a particular cycle phase, or that "cycle syncing" automatically improves performance.
The numbers reveal a coaching gap
Coaches were clearly interested in learning more.
They rated their willingness to learn about the cycle's potential effects on performance, recovery, and injury risk at 8.5 out of 10, and gave cycle-based training a 7.4 out of 10 for usefulness.
What they actually do is another story. Only 10% said they actively consider the menstrual cycle when planning training, while 45% don't track it at all.
Just 2% track cycle information systematically across an entire team.
Coaches weren't opposed to making changes when an athlete needed them. Eighty-six percent said they would adjust training if an athlete had a higher injury risk, and 70% would consider recommending skipping a competition.
So the willingness is there. The missing piece is knowing how to turn menstrual-health information into useful coaching decisions.
Why coaches aren't getting the tools they need
When asked what makes this difficult, coaches pointed to a few practical problems.
About 68% said they didn't know enough about the topic, 53% said it rarely comes up in coaching education, and 36% said they lack practical tools.
The gap extends to injury prevention. Only 18% reported using a structured injury-prevention program, and none of those programs accounted for cycle-related risk. Most coaches also said their organization has no formal guidelines around menstrual health.
That doesn't mean athletes need to train according to a rigid menstrual-cycle calendar. The researchers emphasize that the evidence doesn't support blanket changes based on cycle phase alone.
Your actual symptoms and experience, including whether strength and muscle gains shift week to week, may be more useful than assuming everyone responds the same way at the same point in the month.
How to make this information useful
If you want to see whether your cycle affects your training, start by paying attention to your own patterns over several cycles.
- Track how you feel: note your energy, mood, sleep, soreness, and how difficult your workouts feel. You can also jot down smaller details, such as whether your usual pre-workout caffeine feels different.
- Look for patterns, not rules: if you consistently notice lower energy or slower recovery at a certain point in your cycle, that's more useful than following a generic phase chart.
- Tell your coach what you're noticing: specific information gives them something they can respond to. Saying "my legs have felt unusually heavy this week" is more actionable than saying you're in a particular cycle phase.
- Don't feel pressured to overhaul your training: if your performance and recovery don't seem to change throughout the month, there's no reason to force a cycle-based plan.
The takeaway
Female athletes may have useful information about their bodies that coaches aren't yet equipped to use.
Until coaching education and sports organizations catch up, tracking your own patterns and communicating them clearly may be the most practical way to make menstrual health part of the training conversation.
