Does menstrual cycle tracking enhance female athlete health and performance? Evaluating five implicit assumptions of an emerging paradigm.

According to an emerging paradigm in the field of sports science and medicine, women athletes can optimize performance and minimize injury by syncing their training to their menstrual cycles. This paradigm links specific cycle phases to performance, perceived exertion, and injury risk. Some researchers, training staff, and coaches have started to apply the paradigm, embracing digital surveillance and prediction of menstrual cycle phase as a strategy to track and optimize athlete performance, promote health, and understand and minimize injury risk. Many see digital menstrual cycle tracking as empowering to female athletes at all levels, from the elite to the recreational. In this article, we identify five often implicit assumptions underpinning the menstrual cycle tracking model of female athlete health and performance. We find the evidence for these assumptions to be unconvincing, warranting skepticism about their efficacy and caution about implementing digital cycle tracking in sport.