Florida schools will not ask student-athletes to share their menstrual histories with a purpose to play highschool sports, following months of opposition from parents, physicians and advocates.
On Thursday, the Florida High School Athletic Association’s board of directors voted 14-2 at an emergency meeting to adopt a proposal that removes questions on a student-athlete’s menstrual history from the state’s pre-participation physical evaluation form.
Until now, the shape included five optional questions on a student-athlete’s menstrual history.
The problem became the topic of controversy after the athletic association’s sports medicine committee last month really useful the questions be mandatory, in response to The Palm Beach Post.
Moreover, the Palm Beach County School District announced that this school 12 months, student-athletes could submit the shape digitally via the sports management software company Aktivate, The Palm Beach Post reported. However the platform’s privacy policy, and federal law, could require it to show data over to legal authorities or other officials in the event that they had a legitimate subpoena.
Some parents and critics argued that requesting menstrual information from students and storing it digitally would violate their privacy — particularly at a time of increased debate and concern over regulations regarding women’s bodies following the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Other opponents feared the questions could possibly be used to focus on trans and nonbinary athletes playing on teams that align with their gender identities.
Now, nonetheless, the newly adopted form is not going to ask student-athletes about menstruation, as a substitute requiring them to fill out questions on their medical, surgical and emotional histories. Those pages shall be kept by a health care provider, parent or guardian — not the college.
One page detailing a student’s medical eligibility to play sports — also without questions on menstruation — will then be accomplished by the student-athlete or their parent or guardian and submitted to the college.
That page may also be filled out by a health care provider if a student-athlete gets referred for extra medical evaluation prior to receiving clearance to play sports.
The brand new rules follow the American Academy of Pediatrics’ guidelines for physical evaluation forms for student-athletes, which state that a medical eligibility form is the just one that should be shared with schools.
At the very least 44 states currently require or optionally ask student-athletes about their menstruation, in response to an evaluation conducted by LGBTQ sports news site Outsports.
Florida’s latest policy, in response to the athletic association board, is meant “to offer an updated PPE form which protects a student-athlete’s privacy while including pertinent medical information a health care provider at a member school would wish access to.”
Ahead of the vote on Thursday, an athletic association official read emails the organization had received from the general public urging the removal of menstruation-related questions. Some argued the questions were “intrusive” and constituted a “breach of privacy.” Greater than two dozen members of the Florida House of Representatives also submitted a letter to the board asking why it was needed to ask student-athletes about their menstrual history, in response to a document obtained by The Palm Beach Post.
Some public comments were hostile to board members, suggesting they desired to surveil young women’s menstruation or prevent some students’ participation in sports.
“Nothing could possibly be farther from the reality, that we’re attempting to curtain girls’ participation in schools,” said board member John Gerdes, who noted that 129,000 girls participated in highschool athletics within the state last 12 months. (The organization didn’t provide statistics on transgender and nonbinary people’s participation in highschool sports in Florida.)
Several board members said they didn’t want their very own daughters, who’re student-athletes, to need to share their menstrual histories on the forms.
Physicians say that while menstrual history provides essential insight for doctors — including, for instance, a patient’s risk of the female athlete triad, a disorder that may result in reproductive, bone and cardiovascular issues — it’s unnecessary for schools to gather such information.
“Having menstrual history could be very essential — whether it’s extremely essential that it’s included in that form is a distinct query,” Dr. Thresia Gambon, president of the Florida Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, previously told NBC News.
Jenn Meale Poggie, a Florida mother of three daughters, said she was blissful with Thursday’s decision, characterizing the questions on menstrual history as “a whole violation of privacy.”
