Leah Williamson made history by winning the Euros with the Lionesses, but the England captain has revealed that crippling period pain threatened to jeopardise her cup-winning campaign.
The defender has disclosed that she suffers from endometriosis, the growth of uterine lining outside the womb, which gives her menstrual pain so severe it can prevent her from playing.
Williamson has said that debilitating period pain poses a major problem for female athletes, and would have been eradicated by now if men had to endure it.
She said: “I’m pretty sure if men had periods we would have figured out a way to stop them by now without doing any damage.”
We do know how to stop this. See the NHS:
You may be able to take some types of pill with no or shorter breaks (a tailored regime), which may reduce some side effects.
Not taking the breaks reduces periods – even eliminates them.
It’s also possible to sterilise, thereby stopping the entire hormonal cycle. Or, get pregnant, that also stops periods – for a time.
That we don’t know how to stop the cycle without a trade off? Well, that’s different, there’s near nothing we know how to stop or change without a trade off.
Women do live longer than men in the UK – so I am not sure that they complain too much about sexism in health services.
I meant to say that they can complain so much about sexism in health services
What does she mean, ‘if men suffered from it’..?
https://mobile.twitter.com/SamanthaTaghoy/status/1607716179023372288
“She said: “I’m pretty sure if men had periods we would have figured out a way to stop them by now without doing any damage.””
Well, women DO have periods. So why haven’t they figured out a way to stop them? Are there no women doctors? No women scientists? We spent a shit load of money for decades on breast cancer which predominantly affects women whilst only recently turning our attention with anything like the same rigour to prostate cancer so there’s no patriarchal ignoring of women’s problems.
Or is Leah Williamson saying women are weak and incapable and rely entirely on men to sort out their problems?
Men don’t have periods but they suffer enough from womens’.
Wonder why she has this problem? Could it be the long years of physical exertion far past the limits the body’s normally expected to sustain to become captain of England’s women’s football team? Like you say, there’s always trade-offs. How many of top sports people are suffering from injuries at any time?
Men DO have periods, bigots.
She said: “I’m pretty sure if men had periods we would have figured out a way to stop them by now without doing any damage.”
Women never stop to consider that they’re saying these kind of things about the sex who famously avoid going to the doctor until the tumour is big enough to laugh at dirty jokes.
“made history”?
@ wonko the sane
Unless you want to call it”herstory” … it is the sort of history that feminists care about. Women winning something in a man’s game.
[You don’t *have* to mention that they were only competing against other women]
Bloke in Spain I thought the complaint was that the excessive demands made on top performing female athletes meant their periods often stopped or became very irregular, so wouldn’t that mean in her case she can’t have been working hard enough to get to that level of fitness and commitment. Maybe she should have trained more