Menstruation in Sport Beyond Gender Binaries: A Critical Dialogue.

This chapter is a curated dialogue with trans- and non-binary scholars and cis-gender allies to highlight the challenges for those menstruating in sport and physical activity. While menstruation in sport is an increasingly popular topic for researchers and sports organizations, trans, non-binary, and gender non-conforming athletes are largely invisible and unheard in sport science and medical research on menstruation in sport. To date, most sports organizational approaches to supporting athletes and participants towards menstrual health and wellbeing are focused entirely on cis-gender women. After briefly reviewing relevant literature on menstruation in relation to the gender binary, the chapter offers a curated dialogue that reveals the cisnormative assumptions that continue to underpin research and practice, organizational approaches, and lived experiences of menstruation in sport. Herein, we also consider the effects, and embodied affects, of such exclusions and oversights.