Emma Quinn
Thesis Title: Bad Blood? Menstrual pain, stigma, and mental illness in competitive sport cultures
Half the world’s population menstruates yet it remains a taboo subject across many societies and cultures. In 2021, when world number one tennis player Iga Świątek cited menstrual pain as negatively impacting performance, she was widely commended for breaking the silence on this issue. Increasingly, women in sport are highlighting the significant challenges associated with menstruation, and the lack of professional knowledge on how to manage it. Most research to date has focused on objective menstrual symptoms women in sport experience, and how these can impact athletic performance. Although framing menstrual symptoms as a personal performance issue has helped recognise female athletes’ struggles, it risks demonising a natural biological process to the point some athletes prefer not to menstruate at all (Höök et al., 2021). Recent elite sport trends in menstrual cycle monitoring (Carmichael et al., 2021) may lay the “problem” of menstruation squarely inside the bodies of women. Highly medicalised perspectives are stigmatising and insensitive to the ways the impact of menstruation is also socially and culturally constructed. Within the general population, menstrual issues can lead to onset of mental disorders, such as pre-menstrual-dysphoric-disorder (Seeman, 2012). Stigma, shame, and mental ill-health are ubiquitous to the menstrual experience, yet have not been discussed from an athlete perspective. The female period remains a taboo leaving athletes too fearful to disclose issues and unable to access appropriate support (Armour et al., 2020). This programme of research addresses this gap by exploring athletes’ personal narratives of severe menstrual symptoms within competitive sport cultures.
Biography
Emma has studied at Loughborough University over four years, completing a BSc and MSc in Sport Psychology since 2019, and has a theoretical and applied interest in menstruation in elite sport. Emma’s undergraduate research explored elite athletes’ experiences of menstruating in elite sport, the findings of which were built upon in her master research examining IDT practitioners’ experiences of menstrual management and practitioner collaboration. In 2023, Emma presented her research to key stakeholders in British Swimming and Loughborough Lightning Wheelchair Basketball. Alongside her MSc, Emma also completed the Open University’s graded course on supporting female performance in sport and fitness. In 2022, Emma completed a summer placement at Loughborough University working with Dr Anthony Papathomas to develop and evaluate iREAD – an immersive reading experience using pedagogically enhanced PDFs to aid the completion of university recommended reading. Emma received an Inclusivity in Teaching Innovation Award at Loughborough University’s 2022 Learning and Teaching Conference alongside Dr Papathomas for her work in this project. Emma also has applied experience of sport psychology, volunteering as a performance psychology support for the England Amputee Football team from 2021-2023.
Publications
Palmer, S., & Quinn, E. (2020). A journey starting with Karate at 3 years old to an interest in performance anxiety and sport psychology: Stephen Palmer in conversation with Emma Quinn. Coaching Psychology International, 13(1), 45-51.
Sport & Exercise Science
Loughborough University
2023 Cohort, 3.5
www.linkedin.com/in/emma-quinn-
Supervisory Team
Dr Anthony Papathomas
Dr Emma O'Donnell