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New grassroots-focused platform tackles menstrual health, injury prevention and wellbeing as women’s football participation continues to grow.
For many girls and women, some of the biggest barriers to staying in sport are rarely discussed openly. Pain during a match. Anxiety around injuries. Lack of access to trusted information. The feeling that conversations around periods, breast health or changing bodies are still taboo.
In England, the Football Association (FA) is trying to change that.
The governing body for English football recently launched its first-ever Female Health Hub — an online platform to equip women and girls across the grassroots game with trusted information, practical tools and athlete-informed guidance around female health.
The resource comes as women’s football continues to grow rapidly in England and globally, following a surge in participation and visibility after the England women’s national team (the “Lionesses”) won UEFA Women’s Euro 2022. Despite that momentum, many players still lack education and support around how their bodies can impact training, performance and wellbeing.
The new hub forms part of the FA’s wider “Made for this Game” campaign, launched in 2024 to help address barriers hindering women and girls’ participation. The campaign focuses on everything from access to facilities and coaching to confidence, safety and representation, while pushing back against the idea that girls and women don’t belong in football. At its core is a simple message: women and girls belong in the game, and football environments should better reflect and support their experiences.
The Female Health Hub builds on that approach by tackling issues often overlooked in sport settings.
Recent FA research found that 88% of adult players surveyed said their menstrual cycle impacts their ability to train or play. At the same time, 86% said they had never received education about the menstrual cycle in relation to football performance or training.
The findings also extended beyond menstrual health. Nearly two-thirds of players reported issues related to sports bras or breast health while playing, while many also said they wanted to learn more about injury prevention, nutrition and mental health.
Rather than treating those conversations as taboo or secondary to performance, the Female Health Hub places them at the center of the player experience.
The platform currently focuses on menstrual health, breast health and injury resilience, combining expert-backed information with practical strategies. It also offers perspectives from Lionesses players, who share their experiences navigating female health while competing at the highest level of the sport.
Importantly, the resource targets not only elite athletes, but also the wider grassroots football community — including players, coaches and support networks who may not otherwise have access to this kind of information.
The launch also reflects broader community conversations. Coaches, players and advocates have increasingly pushed for environments that better support the realities of girls’ and women’s participation — from access to facilities and safe spaces to conversations around health, wellbeing and dignity in sport.
For organizations working in sport for development and community sport, the Hub reflects a growing recognition that participation alone is not enough. Creating environments where women and girls feel informed, supported and able to stay in sport requires addressing the practical realities that shape their everyday experiences.
Around the world, girls disproportionately drop out of sport during adolescence, often because of stigma, lack of support and limited understanding around their bodies and health. Resources like the Female Health Hub reflect a broader shift taking place across the sector: moving beyond simply opening the door to women and girls and toward building sporting environments intentionally designed with their experiences in mind.
“Our ambition is to create a game where women and girls can thrive,” said Sue Day, Director of Women’s Football at the FA, in the launch announcement. “We want every player to feel confident in her own skin and supported without judgment, so she can feel empowered by her body, rather than held back by it.”
Coaches, players and community organizations can access the Female Health Hub now, with plans to continue expanding resources on nutrition, pelvic health and other topics in future phases.
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