An athlete in the UK has received a lot of praise for her honest post about having to miss out on a competition because of period pain.
Jazmin Sawyers posted on Twitter, “I sadly had to pull out of the competition here in Boston yesterday – I’m fine, and will be jumping in Oslo next week, but give this a read.”
The 23-year-old athlete then posted a statement which explained that she was forced to pull out of the competition due to the severity of her period pains.
She explained:
“I wasn’t going to give an explanation online about why I pulled out of yesterday’s competition but this is something that isn’t talked about enough in sport, and it ought to be. About an hour before I was supposed to leave for the track I came on my period – I get VERY bad periods for the first 1-2 days. Can’t walk, intense pain radiating down my legs, head spinning, full body sweating, shouting, crying kind of bad.
5 mins before leaving for the track all of the above happened. If you don’t have periods, or don’t have them this bad, it’s hard to imagine why I can’t just suck it up and compete, but when you’re in so much pain you can’t walk more than a few steps, and your legs buckle under your own weight, there’s no chance you can jump.”
I sadly had to pull out of the competition here in Boston yesterday – I’m fine, and will be jumping in Oslo next week, but give this a read pic.twitter.com/go810aSM0V
— Jazmin Sawyers (@JazminSawyers) June 5, 2017
Fellow athletes and the general public have been thanking her for being so open and honest.
Every sportswomen, at whatever level, who suffers from severe menstrual cycles appreciates that you spoke out. Thank you Jaz
— Emily Dudgeon (@EmilyDudgeon) June 5, 2017
Sounds worse than the indigestion I get after an all-you-can-eat buffet. And I wouldn’t dream of jumping after that. Fair play for posting.
— Jon Mulkeen (@Statman_Jon) June 5, 2017
Brilliant work for posting. I once pulled out of a race just because it looked like a ‘long’ 200m so I am in constant awe of real challenges
— Leo (@decath10n) June 5, 2017
I totally hear you. I’ve gotten my period mid way through an Ironman race. Not ideal at all. I do my best to talk about it too. ??
— I R O N T A R S H™ (@Supergal007) June 5, 2017
V important to talk openly & be grown up re this. It’s a shame to see a couple of silly replies, which don’t help the purpose of the tweet
— Stephen Prior (@saprior) June 5, 2017
Omg! Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I’ve never seen a statement like this in all my years. I have the same kind of periods.
— Sara (@The_Sara_817) June 5, 2017
