46% of girls are deliberately skipping PE lessons due to “period anxiety” ? which is why education programme, betty for schools, is working with teachers and parents to eliminate the stigma for good
This week is National School Sports Week (26th to 30th June), and thousands of children across the UK will be getting stuck into a multitude of fun and physical activities, both inside and outside school hours.
But it turns out that nearly half of girls are still not getting the exercise they need at school, with a large portion of young women deliberately avoiding PE lessons due to the fear and anxiety that comes with having a period.
Research by period-education programme, betty for schools, recently revealed that 46% of young girls use periods as an excuse to get out of PE lessons (even when they felt well enough to take part), with 39% experiencing a fear of “leaking”, and of pads being visible to others or moving around during exercise. Roughly two thirds of those interviewed (63%) also admitted that they dreaded PE lessons while on their periods, while three in four (74%) agreeing that “period shame” was one of the main reasons that they felt reluctant to participate in sports at school.
Still a “taboo”
The stress behind this, they say, simply comes down to a lack of information about the benefits of exercise while menstruating ? indeed, 68% believe that if girls received better education around the behaviour of periods throu...