The power of the words we use

When I was developing the first ever female athlete campaign for elite athletes at The English Institute of Sport, I wanted to call it ‘Rise Athena’. Athena is the Goddess of wisdom and war – and since I wanted our athletes to have better wisdom (knowledge and understanding) about their bodies and what it means to be a woman, and I see athletes as warriors, I thought it was a perfect name. My Communications department didn’t agree. They said it was too abstract. Even though I knew (or had Googled!) who Athena was, most people wouldn’t make the connection between her and our ambition to empower women in sport. We worked through a few more names until we settled on SmartHER. I loved it. We wanted female athletes to be smarter about knowing themselves, and as an athlete support system we want to be smarter about how we support the health and performance of the girls and women in the UK high performance system. And being smarter could mean learning new stuff, but it could also mean finding better ways of doing things. SmartHER. Everybody gets it. And that’s because the words we use matter. Metaphors and euphemisms have their place, but sometimes clarity and using words which say what you mean is so important. 

I’ve done lots of talks on female specific factors that affect sportswomen to audiences mainly full of men. They are Performance Directors, coaches and support staff – there are a lot of men in sport, even women’s sport. In these talks it’s important to me get my language right – I talk about periods and blood, tampons and pads, breast pain and breast bounce, heavy flow, withdrawal bleeds, vulval pain and urinary incontinence.  When I use those words, in a confident but relaxed way, it models how they should be used more widely in conversation and discussion. If we use the words, not euphemisms, no air quotes or “you know what’s” everyone is on the same page and discussion can be so much more useful.   Imagine if the anxiety and anguish of being on your period and needing to go to the bathroom to change your tampon or pad, but feeling too embarrassed to ask your coach if you could take a break in training was replaced, quite simply with the words ‘hey coach, I’m on my period today and there’s a chance I won’t be able to go the whole session without needing to go to the toilet’….  That’s surely better than the judgement or embarrassment as the athlete try’s to sneak out of the session with a tampon smuggled up her sleeve. 

The right words seemed to be lacking for cyclist Hannah Dines when she sustained a vulval injury that eventually required surgery. The position that we adopt on a racing or road bike (as opposed to an upright position for pootling around town) puts pressure on the vulva -a part of our anatomy that isn’t meant to be weight bearing. The vulva is the part of your genitals on the outside of your body — your labia, clitoris, vaginal opening, and the opening to the urethra (the hole you pee out of). And because saddles are largely designed for male riders, the pressure placed upon the vulva as females sit in that forward position (rather than the weight being in your bum and seat bones when you sit upright) causes pain, and if left unchecked, swelling, and sometimes more significant injury. But Dines says too many women cyclists are describing this as ‘saddle soreness’ which is actually the pain and sores that one can experience on their bum or perineum (the bit between your bum and genitals). It’s not until we start using the right words, like having pain and numbness in the vulva, that we start knowing when something isn’t normal and we can seek the right help. Whether that be the right medical treatment, or the right advice on saddles, bike fit and riding position. 

A recent survey by The Eve Appeal found that only 1% of parents use the word vulva with their daughters, with a half favouring euphemisms instead. And when girls start their periods, their mothers will most likely offer them the menstrual products they have used throughout their life. And given that most women for the past 50 years have been getting their bra fitted by the lady in M&S, our knowledge of good breast support, particularly during sport is likely to be lacking. There is a gap in our knowledge about this stuff, which means we often don’t feel confident using the correct language. At best this perpetuates the barriers women experience in fulfilling their potential as athletes or as people, and at worse costs them their health and sometimes their life. The Eve Appeal talks about women literally dying of embarrassment as they don’t bring gynaecological issues to their doctor because they are uncomfortable talking about them.

So, let’s start by using the right words. If you need to swot up on what they are- no problem – that’s your homework for this week! Whether it be Dads or Mums, coaches or teachers, athletes or students, patients or clinicians – we can all do better. I’m not talking about redesigning the school alphabet poster so that ‘V is for Vagina and Vulva’, nor bringing up what’s in someone’s underwear for no good reason. But when it’s the time and place for talking about this stuff, we should be guided by the principles of educating and empowering, not sparing our own, or other’s embarrassment.