Are you a female athlete between 16–25?

"My name is Sienna O’Shannessey, I am 21 years old and I am studying a Bachelor of Applied Science, Sport and Exercise at Otago Polytechnic.

A study completed in 2023 found that active wahine | females had low functional knowledge of the menstrual cycle and associated health outcomes. The same study had very low responses from females between the ages of 16-19 years (3.1% response rate), an age that is critical for developing good habits and a strong knowledge base.

For my 3rd year project, I am assessing the knowledge and perceptions of wahine | female athletes, aged 16-25 on the menstrual cycle and associated health outcomes.

I am passionate about my topic because of the harm of losing the menstrual cycle due to overtraining (amenorrhea), or not menstruating regularly (dysmenorrhea) at a young age can have short term effects such as low energy availability (LEA), fractures, performance impacts and Reduced Energy Deficiency Syndrome (RED's). Long-term effects include infertility and increased risk of osteoporosis and cardiovascular disease."

Sienna is requesting that female athletes, aged 16-25 fill out this survey.

Girls don't have to be currently playing a sport, for example, if they did rowing, touch, swimming, athletics, etc. in the summer and are having an off-season now, that is totally fine. Dancers, gymnasts would fit the inclusion criteria. Players can be at any performance level.

The survey should take 15 to 20 minutes and has an information leading page about the details of the survey, and includes mostly tick box answers. There are some resources available upon completion of the survey that are free to all.

The survey link below can be forwarded via email, copied into social media posts or posted to websites.

Your help in distributing this survey to wahine athletes is greatly appreciated!