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Vodafone partners with Wales women’s rugby team to track periods and performance
Wales Women will be using the tracking app during the Six Nations Championship
Vodafone has teamed up with the Wales women’s Rugby team to track and research how the menstrual cycle impacts performance, wellbeing and recovery.
Vodafone, who is a founding principal partner of Wales Women’s and Girls rugby, has added menstrual cycle tracking to their PLAYER.Connect platform, which aggregates data from athletes’ wearable devices.
The platform gathers data on players’ performance, menstrual cycle phases and mental and physical wellbeing, by combining data from wearable devices such as GPS trackers in real time.
This is in addition to input from the players themselves, via daily ‘morning monitoring’ – a series of questions answered by the players on arrival at training.
The Wales Women’s team is the first female team to try out the tracking feature.
“Despite 93 per cent of female rugby players reporting menstrual cycle-related symptoms and 67 per cent believing these severely impair their performances, there is limited guidance available on how players can best manage this,” says Alex Skelton, PLAYER.Connect head of performance.
“Being able to directly link each athlete’s menstrual cycle stage to their performance data provides a massive advantage in how we can begin to tackle this issue, by allowing coaches and analysts to move away from ‘catch-all’ solutions and provide genuine tailoring of diet, training and preparation for each individual player.
“Combined with a long-term research study using our PLAYER.Connect data, this will allow us to make huge strides in how we help female athletes of all levels better understand and manage their cycle.”
Rugby player Cerys Hale
Joanna Perkins, Welsh Rugby Union’s national women’s physiotherapist, says the platform is already having a significant impact on the players’ training and preparation.
“PLAYER.Connect gives us information in real time, and is far more user friendly,” she explains.
“That means we can quickly implement strategies, inform change, avoid injuries, and help players reach their peak preparation ahead of each fixture.”
Wales Women prop, Cerys Hale, says the PLAYER.Connect technology has improved her performance this season.
“It’s given me a greater awareness of things I need to do away from the field, so for example I can monitor any soreness, be more aware of how I’m recovering and then look at what I can do before training to help manage injury prevention.
“This includes tips on how I can change my nutrition during each of the phases of my cycle, how I can reduce my symptoms, and it’s just given me more confidence that I’m putting my body in the right place to be able to perform.”
Vodafone is also working with Cardiff Metropolitan University on a research study to further investigate the impact of the menstrual cycle by using the data gathered from PLAYER.Connect.
The ambition, the company says, is to provide information that can help all female athletes of all levels better manage their performance and wellbeing in the future.
“We are committed to using our network to find innovative ways to support the growth of women’s rugby in the UK from the grassroots up,” says Vodafone’s UK chief commercial officer, Max Taylor.
“We are only in the early stages of a long partnership with the WRU and we’re looking forward to working with the team in the coming years to deliver on our ambitious plans.”
Small bowel microbiome differences between women and men may help explain why some conditions are more common in women, a study suggests.
The small bowel microbiome is the community of microorganisms living in this part of the digestive tract, where they play vital roles in immune function, metabolism and hormonal regulation.
Researchers found differences between women and men in the composition and organisation of these microbial communities. One bacterial community containing Granulicatella was found only in women.
The study was conducted by investigators at Cedars-Sinai Health Sciences University.
Ruchi Mathur, director of clinical research and clinical operations for the Medically Associated Science and Technology (MAST) Program at Cedars-Sinai and corresponding author of the study, said: “One intriguing finding was a bacterial community containing Granulicatella, which we found only in women.
“Bacteria in this community appear at increased levels in women with polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome, formerly known as polycystic ovary syndrome.”
The researchers also identified differences between women and men in how microbes in the small bowel produce fructans, complex carbohydrates known to trigger digestive symptoms in irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).
IBS is far more common in women than men.
Mathur, who is also a professor of medicine, said: “Our findings show that biological sex is a critical variable in the small bowel microbiome.
“We must consider it as we move toward more personalised approaches to understanding and treating disease.”
An experimental cancer drug reduced bone loss and body fat in mice modelling post-menopausal changes, early research suggests.
The compound, CADD522, appeared to strengthen bones and help the animals stay leaner after surgery designed to mimic hormonal changes seen after menopause.
The treatment remains at an early experimental stage and has so far only been tested in animals.
The study, led by the University of East Anglia, investigated CADD522, which was originally developed to block a protein involved in the growth and spread of several cancers.
Mice treated with the compound for eight weeks showed significant improvements in bone health. Scans found increased bone volume and better preservation of the honeycomb-like structures inside bones that are crucial for strength and resilience.
Blood tests suggested the treatment stimulated new bone growth without interfering with the body’s normal process of breaking down and rebuilding bone.
Dr Darrell Green, lead researcher from UEA’s Norwich Medical School, said: “Osteoporosis affects around one in three women over the age of 50, leaving sufferers vulnerable to painful fractures that can seriously impact quality of life.
“Current treatments exist, but many are plagued by side effects, safety concerns or inconvenient dosing schedules that make long-term use difficult.”
The researchers also found that mice receiving CADD522 weighed less than untreated mice despite eating the same amount of food.
They had less body fat and fewer fat deposits in their bone marrow, a process commonly seen after menopause and linked to declining bone health.
The team also examined brain tissue and found that the drug appeared to reverse several menopause-related changes in fatty acids.
Levels of omega-3 fats including DHA remained largely intact, while several other lipid abnormalities shifted back towards healthier patterns.
Green said: “We didn’t directly test for memory or thinking ability, but our work raises questions about whether this drug could one day help address wider menopause-related health problems.”
Safety experiments in mice, rats and dogs found that CADD522 could be taken orally and was well tolerated.
The compound also appeared to be metabolised more slowly in human tissue than in rodents, potentially improving its performance in people.
“This is still in the early stages and has so far only been tested in animals but we hope that the benefits will translate to humans to ultimately reduce fracture rates,” added Green.
The research was led by UEA in collaboration with the University of Maryland, the Scintillon Research Institute in San Diego and the University of Stirling.
Safety testing was funded by The Sir William Coxen Trust as part of the development of CADD522 as a childhood cancer treatment.
Weight loss surgery was linked to more regular periods and fewer polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome (PMOS) symptoms in women aged 18 to 45 living with obesity in a recent study.
The researchers recommend that women undergoing the procedure have access to preconception care and reproductive counselling to support their reproductive health.
Researchers at the University of Surrey analysed data over 24 months from 84 women who underwent bariatric surgery and 18 women living with obesity who did not have surgery.
Of those who underwent surgery, 49 had gastric bypass procedures and 35 had gastric sleeve surgery.
Women who underwent metabolic bariatric surgery lost more than 30kg on average at 12 and 24 months after the procedure.
Among women with polycystic ovaries, the condition persisted in only 10 per cent after 24 months.
Women also reported a resolution of clinical hirsutism, or excess body hair, by 12 months.
Women who had previously experienced irregular periods reported more regular menstrual cycles after surgery.
Professor Martin Whyte, co-author of the study and professor of metabolic medicine at the University of Surrey, said: “A large proportion of those undergoing bariatric surgery are women of reproductive age, who may be planning a pregnancy in the coming years.
“So much remains unknown about the impact of this type of surgery on women who are planning to have children.
“This raises the question of when the ideal time after surgery is to conceive.”
Women have a higher prevalence of obesity than men, with 57 per cent of women in the UK classified as overweight and 27 per cent living with obesity, which can affect fertility and the health of an unborn baby.
The researchers said 17 women had healthy pregnancies following surgery.
Although this was not specifically examined in the study, no difference in birth weight was observed between babies conceived within or after the first year.
Dr Kathryn Hart, co-author of the study and associate professor in nutrition and dietetics at the University of Surrey, said: “What we have found is that bariatric surgery positively affects the reproductive health of women living with obesity and can improve the likelihood of them having a healthy pregnancy after surgery.
“Dysregulated hormone levels, irregular periods and conditions such as polycystic ovaries are affected by obesity.
“By reducing this, what we have seen is that it can lead to improvements without the need for medication.
“We would suggest that clinicians consider medical intervention for obesity to treat irregularities in the menstrual cycle and issues with fertility.”
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