Our coaches would never transport an unconscious kid with a head injury. They would call 911. Plus, there is absolutely no need to know any information on that health form to render emergency aid. There is no medical circumstance under which it would be crucial, or even useful, to know information about menstrual cycles before any necessary treatment.
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People do realize though that these forms are only required yearly for sports participation, right? No one is tracking a monthly menstrual cycle on an athlete.
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The doctorās physical is only required once a year, but the school district forms, with many intrusive questions, are required for every sports season. That means three times a year for my high school student.
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Interesting. Our state only requires all of the paperwork to be completed yearly starting in fall of the current school year if they start with a fall sport. So say the athlete played all 3 seasons - the only paperwork that needs completion is a recertification form which asks specific questions if the athlete sustained a recent injury, eg concussion, or if any other major medical info has changed. Menstrual cycle is not part of the questions on the recertification form.
Even with annual reports, if the form is asking for frequency of menstrual cycles in the past year, the school admin/coach etc. would be able to see patterns that could suggest a pregnancy, a terminated pregnancy, or for a student who doesnāt menstruate due to birth control they might be suspected of transitioning genders, just to take some examples. Again, no reason for HS admin or coach to know anything beyond this athlete is healthy and can play sports with no restrictions.
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Menses history would not be the only thing that could allude to transitioning. The list of medications would probably be a much bigger indicator of that. However, Iām not looking at this from a transitioning standpoint. Iām looking at it as a HCP who is invested in making sure a possible underlying medical issue is further worked up. I do understand if there is a high level of distrust into who gets to see and safeguard that information if they are not a HCP. I am just referring to why certain questions on these forms are asked. That is all.
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I didnāt suggest nor say that it was. I donāt think anyone has an issue with the student discussing these issues with their HCP.
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The coach would not know on a continuing basis, since the question is only asked at the beginning, when the studentās physician is doing the check for clearance.
The coach presumably has better things to do than track or ask about athletesā periods every month.
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Our school district form is required for each sports season (three times a year). Again, this is not for the studentās health care provider. This form goes directly from me to the high school. The district just made the form more extensive, with two pages of medical questions about the student and their relatives.
I do not understand how this information is useful to the school. If it were useful, wouldnāt they need it for all students, not just athletes? Before people say thatās because athletes exercise, four years of PE is required to graduate from high school in NY, so everyone exercises.
As a previous poster commented, if a parent wants their childās school nurses, teachers, coaches, principal, and anyone else in the school district/state government, to know about their menstrual cycle, they are welcome to send in that information. It should not be required for participation in sports.
Wellā¦maybe this is TMIā¦.but Iām asked these questions annually on my update forms at my PCP office. I often wonder why they need this from me and what they will do with the infoā¦because I always reply the same way āI donāt rememberā
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You bring up a valid point. Have definitely seen parents, significant others, even patients themselves forget to mention relevant medical info that would be extremely helpful to the ER staff when in crisis mode. Having that info easily available would definitely assist the staff in providing appropriate treatment to the athlete in an emergency situation.
There is no medication that would be given to a teenager to stabilize them in an ambulance that would affect an embryo or fetus. Nor do I think a coach would send someone to the nurses office to print out a copy of my scanned health form in a life-threatening emergency. (If itās not an acute emergency, the school would call me, not 911.) If my daughter were pregnant or underweight, this would be discovered through medical testing in the hospital.
I do not mind if you donāt believe me, but my husband is an MD, and he thinks it should never be mandatory to disclose menstrual status to the school district.
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In my state, the menstrual questions are also included on the school physical form that is completed for all high school students.
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If the athlete provided the honest and correct menstrual history to their HCP and if the HCP clears the student, do you think that your athlete will be prevented from participating in sports by the school if the menstrual history is left blank on that form?
The fact that this information has been requested for years does not mean that there isnāt an agenda behind doubling down and possibly mandating the provision of such information, now.
Presumably as a society were are moving in the direction of reducing explicit, invasive requests for unnecessary personal information, not increasing them (even though we all voluntarily give up our private info on the internet, on the reg).
For instance, almost all my doctors and other similar type appointments used to ask for my SS number (using it as part of their filing system). Thatās a hard no. And they rarely ask, now.
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I totally understand peopleās concerns. Just providing or agreeing with valid points on both sides of the discussion.
It is not realistic to expect that this information is practically accessible enough for it to be immediately provided to EMT services in case of a health emergency, or for it to be of much use if it it was. By reading the posts here, youād think California and other states which do not require this information were endangering their student/athletes, and all states were endangering their non-athlete students.
It seems that some posters are going to great lengths to make excuses for extremely invasive policies with little legitimate value but fraught with potential for abuse.
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Otoh, it was the answer given to the doctor in the context of a sports exam that resulted in an intervention for a friendās D.
D was "supplementing " her restrictive eating regimen with XC. The mom was concerned but the MD connected the dots between her choice of sport, etc. and was able to address before it became more serious.
If you donāt want to answer, donāt. I understand why someone might not want to answer, just like they might not want their weight in the file. But I am not really seeing evil intent in this, especially as abuses of athletes (by coaches) and concerns about mental health (including eating/exercise disorders) have come to be better understood.
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But this is information for the doctor. The topic of the thread is asking if this information should be required to be turned over to the school, not the doctor. Given that some coaches are (in your words)" abusive," do we really want to arm these coaches with intimate information about the student athletes?
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