Matildas star Mary Fowler shares her fears of telling coaches her struggles during her menstrual cycle
Matildas star Mary Fowler said she often feared telling coaches about struggles with her menstrual cycle. She opens up about the still taboo subject in a new documentary series.
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Matildas star Mary Fowler has opened up about the fear of telling coaches about her personal struggles, revealing in a new documentary she experiences stomach cramps, back pain, headaches and vomiting during her menstrual cycle.
The four-part docuseries, directed by Fowler’s brother Vino and produced in partnership with Rebel and Channel 7, gives viewers a rare insight into life as an elite sports woman – covering everything from childhood dreams, equality, mental health, body image and women’s health.
Fowler said that even in a women’s team environment talking about your menstrual cycle was still a taboo subject.
“Being able to have a platform where I can openly speak about it and speak about how I’ve dealt with things and the kind of ups and downs of it in a very vulnerable way, that is the first step in making it a more comfortable subject,” the Manchester City forward said.
In the series Fowler details how she can have sleepless nights, experience bad cramping, back aches, headaches and even vomiting on the first day of her cycle.
She said that it can be hard to perform on the pitch when your body feels that way. While Fowler would have no problem talking to a coach about a pulled muscle mentioning she wasn’t performing because of her period became complicated.
“There are times when you feel like absolute crap and you’re still expected to perform even though you maybe didn’t sleep at all the night before, you have cramps and everything,” she said.
“I’m really lucky to be at City because they are trying to learn more about menstruation and they are willing to listen and understand their players more when it comes to periods.
“But I do know from other players that not every environment is like that. And there are often times you don’t want to tell anyone about your period because you come across as weak and people may think you are making excuses for things when really you are just being honest about how you are feeling.
“There is definitely a long way to go because not every club manages these things the way City does. I think that can only happen when it is less of a taboo subject.”
It is often around this time of the month that Fowler feels uncomfortable in her own body.
But the 20-year-old has developed a handy tool for dealing with those down days.
She makes sure to snap a photo of herself when she is feeling good in her body and saves them all in an album labelled “me”.
“I would just look back on that, especially on times I wasn’t feeling well about my body and would see these pictures of myself and be like that was me literally two days ago and I was feeling great about myself,” Fowler said.
“So not heaps has changed in two days and that would just make me see how real things are – the mind often makes you think about things in a certain way and it is often exaggerated.”
Her message for other young girls still learning to be comfortable with their body was to be patient.
“Always speak to yourself in a kind way, even if you’re not feeling good about yourself and just say ‘this is just one of those days when I’m not feeling great, things aren’t going to stay this way and I’m going to feel better’,” she said.
The docuseries will be available on 7 Plus from Saturday, June 10.
*Don’t miss tomorrow’s edition of Code Insight when several elite athletes share their struggles and solutions to issues relating to their menstrual cycle.
Originally published as Matildas star Mary Fowler shares her fears of telling coaches her struggles during her menstrual cycle
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