Sports Injuries Sustained During Menstruation Yield Higher Burden

WEDNESDAY, Dec. 17, 2025 (HealthDay News) -- Sports injuries do not occur more often during menstruation, but those sustained during menstruation have a significantly higher burden, according to a study published online Dec. 16 in Frontiers in Sports and Active Living.Eva Ferrer, M.D., from FC Barcelona Medical Department in Spain, and colleagues examined the association between the early follicular phase (menstruation) and the incidence of musculoskeletal time-loss injuries in elite female football players across four competitive seasons. Menstrual cycle and injury data were prospectively collected for 33 elite female football players. Injury incidence rates were computed per 1,000 hours of exposure and compared between menstruation and nonmenstruation phases of the menstrual cycle.Eighty injuries were recorded during 852 menstrual cycles. Of these, 22.5 and 77.5 percent occurred during matches and during training, respectively. The researchers found that the types of injury were muscle injuries, ligament injuries, and tendon injuries (57.5, 30.0, and 12.5 percent, respectively). Overall, 13.7 percent of all cases (11 injuries) occurred during menstruation. The overall injury incidence rate was 6.42 per 1,000 hours, with rates of 5.46 and 6.60 per 1,000 hours during menstruation and nonmenstruation, respectively. No significant difference was seen in injury incidence between the phases, but the burden of injury was significantly higher during menstruation (684 versus 206 days lost per 1,000 exposure hours)."We show that menstruation itself does not increase how often injuries happen," Ferrer said in a statement. "Although athletes were not injured more often during their period, the injuries that happened during menstruation caused three times more days lost than injuries occurring at other times of the cycle."Two authors are employed by FC Barcelona.Abstract/Full Text.Sign up for our weekly HealthDay newsletter

Sports Injuries Sustained During Menstruation Yield Higher Burden

Related Stories