Later this month, the Florida High School Athletics Association (FHSAA) will decide whether to require female athletes to disclose their menstrual history in order to compete at the high school level.
The FHSAA’s new draft physical evaluation form asks prospective female athletes whether they have had a menstrual period, and if so, how old, how many in the past year, and date of the most recent menstrual period. The questions have been an optional part of the FHSAA’s pre-participation form for more than 20 years, but they could become mandatory at a Board of Directors meeting from Feb. 26-27 in Gainesville.
Critics say the proposed change is an invasion of privacy, part of Florida’s effort to roll back transgender rights. Last year, Florida governor Ron DeSantis approved a bill banning transgender female students from playing on women and girls’ sports teams.
Other than questions about female athletes’ menstrual histories, the form asks about cardiac health, medications, and history of injury. Texas also asks female athletes similar questions about their menstrual history, but many other states instead require athletes to undergo a physical examination from a healthcare provider. A signature from the provider is turned over to the school in that aforementioned scenario as opposed to the athlete’s personal health history.
According to the Tampa Bay Times, Sen. Jason Brodeur, R-Lake Mary, the vice chairperson of the Senate’s Health Policy committee, believes mandating the disclosure of a student athlete’s menstrual history could be a violation of federal law that requires sensitive patient information to be protected and kept confidential.
”You’ve got to have all new protocols around data safety and storage for this health information that they’re really not equipped to do,” Brodeur said in reference to schools.
Illinois has had almost these exact same questions for well over 10 years as well as a question about testicle health. Sounds like Florida is just catching up to what other states have been doing for a long time. It could be said that Florida actually cares about the health and well-being of female athletes.
My IL high school athlete had no form asking her those questions.
Any athlete that participates in IHSA sports has to have a physical and complete this additional form.2021-2022 IHSA Sports Physical Form.pdf – Google Drive
https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-desantis-florida-sports-female-athletes-160560972802
The AP- not exactly a “right wing” projection platform
So calm down…
I can’t understand why you seem to be willing to acknowledge that this recommendation is awful, but seem so desperate to convince us all that we should just be quiet and let them do what they want.
The FHSAA recommendation carries strong weight. The public discourse is how the stakeholders communicate to the final decision-makers that they disapprove of the recommendation. How else should the FHSAA get feedback from their constituency if not via public discussion?
Why do you want us all to shut up and sit in our corners so badly, while the government tells us what’s best for us? Please explain it to me. I genuinely don’t understand why it’s so important to you that we not discuss… Read more »
Blessed be the fruit. Wtf is this
Agree, violates federal HIPA laws and regs; supreme y clause of constution means it won’t survive a court challenge.
From the so-called self-proclaimed “freest state”! 🙄🤦🏼♂️
Blame the bears, bro
Freest state in the self-proclaimed Land of the Free™️
Utah is doing this as well.
I’m a huge Gators fan, but it’s hard to imagine how all of this fool’s “policy changes” (across the board) won’t have an impact on female swimmer recruitment. And it should. It doesn’t matter how great a team culture is (or how lovely the head the coach is), at some point the chickens are going to come home to roost. There are other schools, other states, other programs.
I really doubt something like this will affect recruiting
This policy — which is part and parcel of the general culture of Florida these days — will absolutely affect recruiting. These teenagers have parents, some of whom read and watch the news, so it’s really not hard to imagine.
This isn’t the university of Florida. This is about high school athletics, FHSAA. It isn’t just swimming, but all high school female athletes. The photo is misleading.
The University of Florida complies with the governor’s orders, as we see recently regarding curriculum challenges and academic freedom issues. No public institution of learning in Florida is free from the overreach currently being experienced.
Agreed. Anyone with a daughter & a number of quality choices as a recruited student athlete must consider how far into dystopian hellscape Florida (& I would add Texas) have become by way of clownish political theatrics in the recent couple years. It’s truly a shame.
DeSantis 2024!
Fascist autocrat with no respect for privacy nor invasion of it. After that, go burn some more books and tell academia what they can say or go to jail. 1 9 8 4
Geez..the party of small government? Small enough to drown in the bathtub…or fit in your underwear.
Small government conservatism is a myth.
https://www.p12.nysed.gov/sss/documents/health_exam_form_2022_fillable.pdf
Interesting that NY examines the Tanner Scale to determine which stage of sexual development the athlete is in.
Unfamiliar with this? Seems far more invasive than simply asking about your menstrual cycle.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK470280/
And what about Washington state? They seem to ask multiple questions in regards to an athletes menstrual cycle…
https://www.wiaa.com/ConDocs/Con395/Medical/PPE-History-Form-(English)-rev.pdf
I think the debate isn’t over what information is medically valuable, but rather with whom it should be shared.
The Washington State form explicitly says at the top that “This form should be placed into the athlete’s medical file and should not be shared with schools or sports organizations”
Funny- read the top of page 4 of the proposed document. Heaven forbid people might actually have to scroll past the first page to grasp the “full context”
troll go away, nobody cares.
I have two daughters and a son that swam in high school in NY. They do use the Tanner Scale for both boys and girls if you are swimming on a varsity team in 7th or 8th grade, and I believe once you passed you didn’t have to do that again.
The menstrual questions were asked every year though.
It was something they were not comfortable with but knew it was required to swim so they complied.