As the Women’s World Cup kicks off in Australia and New Zealand, anything could happen. But there is one predictable thing that will happen for most of those playing the duration of the month-long tournament: a period.
And if there’s someone who’s an expert on periods and women’s soccer, it’s Dawn Scott. Scott has earned a name for herself in the game by addressing what was once considered a taboo subject. And after an illustrious career with the U.S. women’s national team and England women’s national team among other soccer institutions, she is now bringing her expertise on menstruation and performance to the NWSL as the vice president of performance, medical and innovation with the Washington Spirit.
Scott’s highly personalized method of performance training was once considered a fantasy in women’s soccer, and in some cases still is, with clubs often operating on a fraction of the personnel of their male counterparts.
“You look at most teams around the world and on the women’s side you might have two medical staff and you might have one or two fitness staff. And, to me, when you are managing a roster of 25 or 30 players that’s not enough people to individualize the support for players,” says Scott.
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For Scott, what started as a pretty innovative idea with the USWNT is now being taken at the club level. Her spell in Washington is an opportunity to build the performance team Scott knows elite women’s athletes unapologetically deserve.
“I felt like it was an opportunity I couldn’t turn down,” says Scott. “Having worked in the women’s game for so long, and that somebody finally was going to commit the vision, the resources, the funding, the investment, the support team that elite female athletes deserve.”
Spirit owner Michele Kang has been supportive of her plan from the start, according to Scott, which includes a holistic approach to performance and a revamping of the department.
“We are also focusing on mental health support and sports psychology support because we feel like that's a whole element there’s very few elite sports teams, men’s or women’s, who have a full-time performance psychology specialist,” says Scott. “We want to support the players at this club as players but also as human beings.”
In many ways, Scott has been a trailblazer throughout her career, recalling being “one of few” women in her sports medicine program in England. So it's perhaps no surprise, aligning sports medicine more closely with the experience of women’s athletes, rather than simply implementing practices from the men’s game, has been a central part of Scott’s work. But even for Scott, the concept of integrating periods with performance is something relatively new.
In 2016, Scott was at a conference in Doha, fresh off winning the ’15 World Cup with the U.S. women’s national team, serving on then-coach Jill Ellis’s staff as the team’s high performance manager. During the meeting, Scott was asked what the U.S. did to address players’ menstrual cycle and her lack of response left her feeling ashamed. “I was actually embarrassed because at the time we did nothing,” recalls Scott.
Following that trip, Scott connected with Dr. Georgia Brunivels, a leader in women’s sports and menstruation, intending to implement period tracking on the team. First, however, Scott needed to get Ellis’s approval, as the coach was worried it could spur fears around incurring injuries during the bleed phase of an athlete’s cycle. “It's absolutely not about that, it's about educating females to become more attuned to their bodies and how they might be feeling, and actually introducing strategies that can reduce some of those symptoms,” Scott assured Ellis.
Come 2018, Scott’s period monitoring program took shape, with athletes beginning to record important personal data. She noticed three or four players started consistently logging “reduced fatigue, or sleep was impacted, or increased muscle soreness around a few days before the onset of their next cycle,” says Scott. With athletes growing accustomed to chronicling their symptoms, the next step for Scott was education, something that became more pressing as the ’19 World Cup neared.
Scott brought in Dr. Brunivels to talk with the USWNT about the menstrual cycle’s impact on performance, with Scott revealing that there was some initial embarrassment around the subject —hunched shoulders and faces shrouded in hoodies. However, that awkwardness quickly subsided as it became clear that there was a real competitive advantage to be levered.
Scott and her team honed in on the four phases of the menstrual cycle (menstrual phase, follicular phase, ovulation phase and luteal phase) and the symptoms that typically coincide with them. While conventional biology books generally mark the menstrual cycle as lasting 28 days, Scott says it can really range to be 21-35 days in length. Cramps, headaches, mood swings, tender breasts, food cravings, fatigue, irritability and depression are all common symptoms of premenstrual syndrome. (They’re markers that people who get periods are familiar with as three in four people who menstruate have experienced some form of PMS, per the Mayo Clinic).
Variance in symptoms, as well as cycle length, made it critical to individualize the process as much as possible, something that, fortunately, is inherent to Scott’s player-centric approach. “With the U.S., the days you spend on the road, you become a family because you are literally spending more time there than you are with your family,” says Scott. “And so you just get to know and recognize the players.” Scott cites that familiarity as an integral piece to her period program ahead of the ’19 World Cup, with her and her staff attuned to each individual’s performance needs.
Much of Scott’s interventions and symptom management came via nutrition. “We would have visuals by the elevators so when our players would go down to meals, depending on what phase you’re in, O.K., these are the foods you should aim to consume that might help to reduce any symptoms you might be experiencing,” says Scott of the USWNT’s World Cup set-up in France. She would also check in with players, especially if they flagged heightened symptoms, cultivating a curated plan to lessen their severity.
While there is no telling if Scott’s attention to the menstrual cycle and hormone fluctuation was the definitive difference-maker, it certainly didn’t hurt as the USWNT charged to victory in 2019, winning back-to-back World Cup trophies under Ellis as head coach, and Scott as performance director.
Fifth in the NWSL standings, and just two games back from first place, it appears something has clicked with the Spirit as well. For Scott, though, it's about more than just results, as pollyanna as that may sound. Her focus remains on the person and player, and in that order, with her central aim to empower athletes to listen to their bodies (something women’s players haven’t always been encouraged to do).
“For me, it’s all about getting in tune with your body,” says Scott. “For me, you can only benefit from that.”
