UK university to research possible menstrual cycle link to knee injuries

A groundbreaking Fifa-funded study at Kingston University will investigate whether hormonal fluctuations during menstrual cycles could be contributing to an alarming rise in career-threatening knee injuries in women’s soccer.

The research comes after players including Arsenal’s Beth Mead, Manchester City’s Vivianne Miedema and Chelsea’s Sam Kerr have all suffered serious injuries of the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), which runs diagonally in the middle of the knee.

Kerr, who is Australian, has been out for 15 months with a ruptured ACL.

Led by PhD student Blake Rivers alongside a team of sports science experts, the year-long study at Kingston near London will analyse blood samples from elite and grassroots footballers to track hormone concentrations through their menstrual cycles.

“We want to examine whether athletes may be more predisposed to injuries because of the functional changes in terms of their anatomy and physiology during the menstrual cycle,” Simon Augustus, Senior Lecturer in Sport Biomechanics, said.

“We know hormones fluctuate during different phases of the cycle but we don’t yet know how much of an influence that may have on the risk of injury.”