Menstrual questions cut from athletic forms amid criticism

Questions about female athletes’ menstrual history will no longer appear on the medical forms that Florida high school students have to fill out before participating in sports.

The Florida High School Athletic Association axed the questions on Thursday after listening to a flood of complaints contained in letters read aloud during an emergency meeting of the board.

Answering the questions was previously optional, but an association advisory committee recently recommended that it be mandatory, sparking the firestorm of criticism.

Some called the questions “humiliating” and “invasive,” and others suggested they were connected to a recent bill barring transgender girls and women from playing on public school teams intended for student athletes identified as girls at birth.

“This is another way to shame girls,” Connie Dewitt said in a letter.

Dr. Deborah White wrote that there was “zero” reason for a school to know about students’ menstrual history.

“The only reason is to weed out transgender kids who may not have periods,” White’s letter said. “As a doctor I would never fill out this form.”

Republican Florida Gov. Ron Desantis signed the bill in 2021, thrusting the state into the national cultural debate over transgender rights. Desantis is widely believed to be considering a run for president next year on a deeply conservative platform.

The association’s spokesperson has said the proposed changes were not in response to concerns about transgender athletes competing in women’s sports, as some social media users have claimed. And association president John Gerdes stressed that politics played no part in the discussions, though the newly adopted form does ask for “sex assigned at birth.”

“This governor and his office had nothing to do with this,” Gerdes said Thursday.

Many other states ask or order female athletes to include details about their menstruation cycles with other health information.