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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.”
The Femtech World Awards is proud to reveal the shortlist for Research Project of the Year as part of the third annual global celebration of innovation, impact and leadership across women’s health.
From fertility science and perimenopause research to regional ecosystem analysis, the shortlisted projects reflect the breadth and growing influence of femtech research worldwide.
The category is sponsored by OncoGenomX, with the winner to be selected by a representative from the organisation.
OncoGenomX is dedicated to offering solutions and providing comprehensive support services that empower Drug Developers, Clinical Researchers, Oncologists,NextGenSeq Diagnostics Laboratories, NextGenSeq Service Organisations, Cancer Diagnostics and Therapeutics Companies to achieve their ambitious goals
The shortlisted entries for Research Project of the Year are:
Women’s health remains significantly underserved in South-East Asia, with persistent gaps in access, awareness, and quality of care carrying substantial social and economic costs.
This report examines the femtech landscape in Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam, highlighting market trends, emerging technologies including artificial intelligence, and the evolving support ecosystem.
It identifies key challenges facing femtech founders, including limited access to finance, low awareness and persistent stigma, marketing constraints linked to content moderation, and gaps in tailored ecosystem support.
Led by Stephanie Willson, MD, of the IVI RMA Global Research Alliance, the study explored whether embryos that show certain chromosome abnormalities during genetic testing may still have the potential to result in a healthy pregnancy and live birth.
The research analysed more than 7,600 frozen embryo transfers and found that some embryos previously considered unlikely to succeed were still capable of leading to successful pregnancies, although at lower rates than embryos without abnormalities.
The findings could help fertility clinics and patients make more informed decisions during IVF treatment, particularly in cases where there are limited embryos available.
Rather than automatically discarding these embryos, the research supports a more evidence-based and personalised approach to fertility care.
For many women, perimenopause can feel confusing and unpredictable, with limited research explaining what is happening in their bodies.
Natural Cycles set out to change that by leading one of the largest studies ever conducted on menstrual and ovulatory patterns, uncovering new insights into how ovulation behaves as women approach menopause.
Conducted in collaboration with researchers from George Washington University, Seattle Clinical Research Center, Gennev and the University of California San Diego, the study analysed nearly one million menstrual cycles from more than 197,000 women aged 18–52 across more than 140 countries.
The scale of this dataset made it possible to explore menstrual patterns and ovulation in far greater detail than has traditionally been possible in women’s health research.
The Femtech World Awards celebrates the innovators, researchers and organisations driving meaningful progress in women’s health.
What happens next
Winners across all categories will be revealed during the virtual ceremony on June 19, with winners receiving a trophy and an interview with a Femtech World journalist.
Women over 40 are seeking raves for mental and physical wellbeing, with a study suggesting the benefits go beyond nightlife.
The findings challenge the idea that nightlife and electronic dance music events are mainly for younger people.
Published in Psychology of Music, the study focused on the common misconception that nightlife is only for younger audiences.
Researchers surveyed 136 female clubbers aged 40 to 65 about their experiences at electronic dance music events.
The study, carried out at the University of Leeds in England, found women reported mental and physical wellbeing benefits from attending these events.
Seeing favourite DJs was the most common motivation, but many women also described dancing as a way to relieve stress and find emotional support.
The research found that 65.9 per cent of participants described attending a rave as “spiritual”, while 62.9 per cent said it offered an escape from everyday life.
A further 58.3 per cent said they felt like a different version of themselves in a club environment.
Nine in ten participants said they felt at home at electronic dance music events, with many pointing to a shared passion for music and the sense of community around it.
The study also suggested physical fitness played a role, with some women saying they had made clubbing part of their regular exercise routine.
However, the findings also highlighted challenges for older women in nightlife spaces.
One fifth of participants said they felt visibly out of place because of their age.
Nearly half reported unwanted physical contact, leading some to seek out different venues or attend only with friends.
Osteoporosis may raise the risk of death in postmenopausal women by up to 47 per cent, a new study suggests.
The findings point to an inverse relationship between femoral bone mineral density and mortality risk, especially within certain ranges.
Femoral bone mineral density is the amount of mineral in the thigh bone, which is often measured to assess bone strength and osteoporosis risk.
Dr Monica Christmas is associate medical director for The Menopause Society.
She said: “Osteoporosis often remains a silent threat after menopause, despite its profound effect on women’s lives—from loss of height, poor balance, and reduced mobility to disfigurement, pain, and even premature death.
“Early screening and preventive measures, including a calcium-rich diet (preferably from food sources), regular weight-bearing exercise, and hormone therapy when appropriate, can significantly improve bone health and reduce risks not only of fractures but also cardiovascular disease, certain cancers, and dementia.
“It’s time we bring this conversation to the forefront.”
In the study involving nearly 3,000 postmenopausal women, bone mineral density at four femoral sites was assessed using dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry, a scan commonly used to measure bone strength and fracture risk.
The analysis found that mortality risk was significantly higher when femoral bone mineral density reached the osteoporotic threshold or when osteoporotic fractures were present.
After full adjustment, osteoporosis was associated with a 47 per cent increased risk of mortality.
A stronger inverse association between increased bone mineral density and mortality risk was seen within specific ranges, suggesting bone mineral density could serve as a prognostic marker of wider health.
The relationship appeared especially notable within the range of 0.46 to 0.71 g/cm² for total femur bone mineral density.
Previous research has shown that postmenopausal women face a significantly higher risk of death within one year of hip or vertebral fractures.
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