April: Swiss pleas and Swedish pizza

Plus joints and R&R (not like that)

1. Working Well

The round up, featuring paperbacks and pizza

We called it March Madness for a reason. In a six week burst from March into April, we launched the groundbreaking FootballHER project and racked up twentyish talks, keynotes and presentations. We’ve been all over Europe; to the heart of UK government and even into the future: our Schoolblazer partnership is set to reshape kit standards in locker rooms going forward.

Oh still futuregazing, The Female Body Bible will shortly come out in paperback – roughly one year on from first crashing The Sunday Times bestseller list. The new edition features extra content you won’t want to miss …

But back to the present, Dr Emma and Orna recently flew into Copenhagen and trained it over the bridge (made famous by the Scandi-noir show of the same name) to Malmö for seminars with players and staff at FC Rosengård.

Part of our work with Adidas, the talks were interspersed with Euphemism Bingo, building a Barrier Wall (we broke it down), and we helped girls compile period planning checklists of their physical, practical and emotional needs.

It went really well (and there was pizza) but no surprise Baz, Bella and Emma all took time to escape. Staycations for some and Sri Lanka for others, we’re big advocates of switching off for R&R with people we love. Hope you are too.

2. The World at Well

Safer Sport: coming soon to a wall near you

Regulars will know that The Well HQ last week announced our Safer Sport project: a series of posters to inform all parties of rules and expectations wherever women’s health is discussed.

We won’t repeat the whole spiel, but as part of due diligence when working with the FA we were shocked to find that no safeguarding guidance existed for non-medical spaces. We couldn’t have that. It’s 2024.

Cue Safer Sport and the response has been tremendous. We’ve already received dozens of your photos of posters in-situ. Please keep ‘em coming. 

To access Safer Sport posters click here, and don’t be shy to pin them wherever her body is up for discussion. 

3. Did they care?

… and do you?

This is a shoutout on behalf of the new Athlete Care study running out of Edinburgh University, a project which wants to hear from elite athletes (past and present) and your experience of care in sport.

Male and female, this doctoral research study wants to hear your views, ideas and personal experience around the concept of care in sport: what it is, what it should be, where it works and where it lacks.

So please click the link, take the survey and help to (re)shape the future of athlete care. Every voice counts and the team want yours …

www.athletecareproject.com

4. Here Comes the Science Bit

Menopause meets climate change in Strasbourg

Here’s a story. Four years ago a group of Swiss women (aged 64+) brought a court case to the ECHR in Strasbourg; claiming that climate change inaction was violating their health and therefore human rights.

The so-called Senior Women for Climate Protection assert that heatwaves pose an elevated risk to the health of older folks, and specifically older women given heat regulation can be particularly difficult in and after menopause.

The women claim that governments, in this case the Swiss government, are culpable for any adverse health impact because those same governments have fallen short of their various climate change targets and obligations.

It sounds like a big claim until we learn that, earlier in April, the Strasbourg court ruled in the group’s favour. It is the first time an international court has ruled on governments’ legal obligations to climate change and the verdict will impact any Euro nation which fails to meet its Paris COP targets.

5. Medical BS

I’m in menopause – just what is going on with my joints?

Dr Bella says: those aches and pains are down to fluctuating and declining oestrogen. It’s similar to what postnatal women experience.

Musculoskeletal issues can be painful and prohibitive, but symptoms may be normalised or overlooked because hot flushes, mood swings and so on grab more attention.

Changes to lifestyle, diet, exercise and so on may help but HRT replaces the oestrogen supply which should return the lifeblood those bones, joints and muscles are missing.

The key is not to accept it. If joint pains are affecting your life then you can do something about it.