Chinese swimmer Fu Yuanhui made headlines in 2016 at the Rio Olympics for telling a reporter she had not performed well due to the timing of her period.

While her comments showed discussing a woman's menstrual cycle in sport was still taboo, it also highlighted a research gap.

Sport and exercise scientist Brianna Larsen said most sports research is based on the physiology of men.

"Female research can be a little bit complicated, we have this thing called the menstrual cycle," Dr Larsen, from the University of Southern Queensland, said.

And on top of that, she said there's not yet an understanding of the impact of hormonal contraceptives on physical performance. 

"We have all these different, invariable hormone profiles that men don't really have to worry about so in that way, men are easier to study.

Performance testing

When exercise scientist Kurt Vogel started working with female athletes about seven years ago, he started by implementing period tracking and initiating conversations with players.

"That's when I started looking into the research, I realised it's not just the lack of research but the inconsistencies in methodology in the research, that means you can't actually rely on most of the papers around," Mr Vogel said. 

He said a lot of the evidence relied on in female sport, was based on male research which could affect risk of injury, recovery times and overall performance. 

Mr Vogel is conducting his own research with female athletes at Lions FC.

Three times a week, he tests their maximal strength and maximal speed while tracking changes through the menstrual cycle. 

"Anecdotally, it's quite interesting to see that during the period, after the first day, generally there's an improvement in performance," he said.

"It is prior to that where the performance tends to decrease."

Semi-professional soccer player and personal trainer Bec Kirkup, who is part of Mr Vogel's testing group, agrees more needs to be done to support females in sport including research. 

"It's so important for the research to be done so we have more scientific evidence so we can help females in sport get the best they can out of their performance," she said. 

Ms Kirkup describes her symptoms as mild, experiencing cramps, headaches and a sore lower back, but has seen other female athletes suffer at different stages of the menstrual cycle. 

"In other girls, they feel really exhausted, fatigued. Cramps can be extremely painful and they can feel a little bit clumsy as well," she said.

Increasing awareness

"We need more awareness into the menstrual cycle and sport and more awareness into female sport full stop," Ms Kirkup said.

"Some females have to train full-time then work full-time too."

Ms Kirkup said while milestones had been reached in professional female sport in recent years, there was still a long way to go, especially in the semi-professional space.

"It's definitely getting there, it's definitely improving, it's moving in the right direction," she said.

"When the day comes that females are paid closer to what the men are paid, then women will be able to play full-time and they'll be able to put a lot more of their focus into their training and recover.

"So that means the games we watch on TV will improve as well."