AFLW star Chloe Dalton opens up on ‘taboo’ health condition millions have

Olympic gold medallist Chloe Dalton has opened up about a condition shrouded in stigma she battles – along with millions of other women.

A few years ago, GWS Giants AFLW player and Olympic gold medallist Chloe Dalton’s period took a painful turn.

“When I was younger … it wasn’t something that would impact me very significantly. I just would get my period each month and carry on with life as if it was normal,” she told news.com.au.

“And then, just a few years ago, I started to notice the symptoms that were coming with the heavy menstrual bleeding that felt like they weren’t normal anymore. It wasn’t normal when all I wanted to do was lie in bed in the foetal position, and not go to work or not go to training because I didn’t really feel like I could leave the house with the extent of some of the symptoms.”

Heavy menstrual bleeding – also known as menorrhagia – is a condition characterised by abnormally heavy or prolonged bleeding and periods, on top of side effects like bloating, fatigue, anxiety and a loss of control over emotions, and physical pain.

“Because my body is used for my job, it has a huge impact on it,” Dalton said.

“If I’m playing a game of footy and I’m experiencing the symptoms, there’s a level of adrenaline that comes where I can just push through because it’s important to just make it through the game.

“But I have felt like when my symptoms are quite bad, it has had a significant impact on my training which is often this feeling of, ‘I just have to push through and persevere through the pain.’”

GWS Giants player and Olympic gold medallist Chloe Dalton. Picture: Instagram

Dalton was anxious about leaving her house when she had her period. Picture: Instagram

It got to the point where Dalton became anxious about leaving her house when she had her period.

“For me, there was a fear around, ‘Am I going to have significant pain, and nausea, and discomfort and not be able to find a solution for the pain to subside?’” she said.

“Or, ‘Who am I going to be able to speak to seek help?’”

Experiences like Dalton’s are far from extraordinary, according to the January findings of “The Period Perspective Survey”. Commissioned by Bayer, it surveyed over 1000 Australians, with one in three (aged 18-60) believed to have undiagnosed heavy menstrual bleeding.

Yet awareness around menorrhagia, obstetrician and gynaecologist Dr Talat Uppal told news.com.au, “is less than optimal”.

“There are multiple questions we have to ask: Are women able to self-recognise that their bleeding is heavy?” she said.

“Are they aware that this is a problem with many solutions, and quite a treatable issue? Are they able to access a suitably trained practitioner? When they do seek medical care, is a clinician proactively offering investigations and treatment options?”

Side effects can include bloating, anxiety, fatigue and physical pain. Picture: iStock

Given the nature of Dalton’s job, she’s got “quite an amazing medical team around me” who have helped her manage the condition “with quite a multifaceted approach”.

“The biggest barrier has been around feeling validated around other staff in a high-performance environment who you might not feel understand the impacts that some of the symptoms could have on your training and performance,” she said.

“And that’s one thing the Giants do an amazing job of now – when they educate players [and say], ‘Hey, this is what’s normal when you’re on your period and this is what might not be normal and you should chat to the doctor.’ They actually get the male high-performance staff to come in so that they’re getting the education around it as well, and the players actually feel comfortable to speak out.”

Shame and stigma, however, continue to play a significant role in preventing other women from taking similar action – 34 per cent of those who believe they may suffer from menorrhagia have not visited a healthcare professional because they feel it’s not required or wouldn’t know how to talk about it.

“Traditionally, women’s health issues tend to be normalised by society, which at times is riddled with much taboo,” Dr Uppal said.

“Women are often constantly in ‘carer’ mode and accepting of quite significant symptoms because they are too busy to seek help. Although the culture is changing, women have often not had open conversations with their mothers and have been brought up to not speak about gynaecological concerns.”

Dalton in action during AFLW Round 01 last year. Picture: Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images

Doctors, on the other hand, “are often time-poor and may not proactively ask or try to establish what their patient’s women’s health issues are”.

All of this means “that these women continue to needlessly suffer from not only heavy menstrual bleeding itself, but can often also suffer from the consequences of being iron-depleted,” Dr Uppal said.

“It also has a huge impact on productivity in society, whether it is time off school or the workplace, reduced potential output from the resultant fatigue and concerns around menstrual hygiene or the impact of bleeding. There can be many lost opportunities for a better quality of life, from a physical, emotional, social and material lens.”

Dalton said she hopes that by chatting publicly about what can “sometimes be perceived as an uncomfortable situation … people who might be experiencing something similar can think, ‘Maybe I’m not just making it up, maybe it’s not normal and I should go chat to my doctor about what’s going on.’

“My biggest piece of advice would be to not keep persevering and feeling like you have to push through on your own,” she said.

“And go to speak to a health professional so you can put things in place to address it in the best way possible.”

Women can take the Period Survey on My Body My Way here – which helps facilitate the first conversation with a health care professional by providing them with the information they should raise with their doctor.