The new revised edition of ROAR is out! Here’s what’s new.
When I started working on ROAR nearly ten years ago, it was still considered fringe to say that women’s unique hormones and their menstrual cycles could impact everything from performance to injury risk to hydration and beyond. That was despite elite, high-achieving athletes like elite runner Paula Radcliffe and tennis champion Heather Watson lamenting openly in the press during that time, menstruation was still woefully under-discussed and misunderstood among athletes and their trainers.
Fast forward a decade, and you have research showing, as we discussed in ROAR, that every single cell is impacted by our hormonal milieu. In fact, neuroscientists are even studying for the first time how the ebb and flow of the hormones that orchestrate the menstrual cycle appear to reshape the brain, which makes sense in light of research showing that the structure, connectivity, and energy metabolism of the brain also changes during perimenopause. We’ve also seen research suggesting that combined oral contraceptives could impair emotional regulation in women. And, of course, there’s ongoing research on how this impacts exercise and sports performance, which is a topic of ongoing study.
