February: last breath before March Madness

Hacks, CIMSPA, cycles … and genital herpes

1. Working Well

CIMSPA, cycles and schools – a trio of updates for Feb

On February 1st, The Well HQ in collaboration with CIMSPA hosted Female Focus in Further Education, an all-parties conference to assess the job ahead in educating sport and fitness professionals in female health.

The main takeaway was that the market is there, ready and waiting. Women’s sport has never been hotter. But we lack practitioners with knowledge and, more crucially, Understanding. And that’s the real key to progress.

Relatedly, a new Menstrual Coffee Break initiative has gripped the team at TWHQ and colleagues now, each Monday, share where we’re at in work, life and in our menstrual cycles. By exchanging what’s going on physically and emotionally, we can normalise the topic and learn from one another too.

On that, stay close to our socials – there’s an ask coming your way.

Lastly, Dr Emma hit Berkhamsted School for the first Sport in Her Shoes of 2024. Over 500 girls attended the seminar, including 70 sport scholars, in what must be the first such workshop in 500 years; for a school founded in 1541.

Progress for sure. Speaking of which, we’re prepping for March madness and in case you missed our mega news here’s something to click.

2. The World at Well

The growth, the market, the opportunity

In early Feb, the Women’s Sport Trust released research on the business of women’s sport and its place in the UK zeitgeist. Growth year, anyone?

We won’t go line by line, but fandom was up across the board in 2023 with TV viewing figures, ticket sales, advertising dollars and media footprint jumping majorly on the prior year. Some 46.7m people tuned in to watch women’s sport on TV, while streams of World Cup 2023 games increased 75% versus 2019.

So the news is good, but there’s a but. The ascending popularity of women’s sport is clear, but it comes back to CIMSPA’s conference concern: while women’s sport is on the rise, there isn’t a workforce ready to service it. We need all practitioners and supporting staff to understand female health.

And that’s the aim of our work with CIMSPA. Ensuring the key education and understanding pieces are woven through the infrastructure so we can capitalise on momentum – and keep the fires burning wherever women meet sport.

3. Can you hack it?

Share your health hacks for IWD

As part of International Women’s Day, we’d love to know and share your tips, tricks and health hacks.

So what hacks do you use? What quirky or ingenious daily tricks keep you safe, prepared, healthy, active, fuelled and serene?

Examples from TWHQ team include:

• Caught short kits in first aid kits
• Incorporating pelvic floor exercise into core circuit drills
• Folding the 11+ ACL-prevention exercises into warm ups
• Stashing SoS tampons in the tool kit …

Please tell us your DIY hacks and let’s share the gold this IWD.

4. Here Comes the Science Bit

No, not less. No, not less. No, not less.

Mid-February, research by the Journal of the American College of Cardiology made a splash in media worldwide. The report seemed to suggest, or at least reporters spun it this way, that women don’t need to exercise as much as men.

Credit where it’s due: there’s value in the report; not least it’s a much-needed contribution to the thin body of research, and it highlights yet again that men and women respond differently to exercise – a message that all need to hear.

But for one the report is built on self-reported data, two it only recorded exercise sessions (not non-exercise activity), and three it led to suggestions that women can / should dial back their exercise ambitions when that’s the exact opposite of the message we’d rather send.

By scaring and / or discouraging women from exercising and training harder, we muddy the water, feed the status quo and stall the progress in-motion.

Sport and fitness environments are already offputting. Research is already thin. Expertise and service provision are already lacking. Telling women to exercise less risks pouring cold water on strides made in all of the above.

Frustrating. Oh and Dr Emma was invited to contribute to the debate on The World At One on Radio 4. It got a little … hilarious.

5. Medical BS

Exactly where did Cupid’s arrow land?

Dr Bella says: Genital herpes is an STI with a whole lotta stigma and so many women suffer in silence with the embarrassment and pain of it. We need to talk about and normalise it.

Genital herpes are cold sores in the genital region; spread via cold sores on lips or genitals. Blisters may take months or even years to appear and, once established, can always recur. There’s no cure and flare ups often coincide with stress or fatigue.

Antivirals are the standard treatment and I advise patients to have Aciclovir tablets on repeat so they can always tackle a flare up.