"Not easy" - Eva Lys shines light on rarely-discussed problem of female tennis players having to play through their periods

Eva Lys recently opened up about a rarely-discussed problem faced by female tennis players. She discussed the difficulty of women having to play through their periods at the highest level.

Lys is a budding German professional currently ranked 129 in the world. The 22-year-old has won three ITF titles and has played in the main draw of every Grand Slam, the most recent one being Wimbledon where she made it through the qualifiers but exited in the opening round.

The German is currently competing at the Budapest Grand Prix, a WTA 250 event on clay. She kicked off her campaign with a comfortable 6-3, 6-0 win against sixth-seed Nadia Podoroska and will face Bernarda Pera next.

Eva Lys recently took to her Instagram to voice her opinion on women having to play while being on their periods. She wrote how people didn't discuss enough about how it wasn't easy for women tennis players to play at the highest level in such a scenario.

“We don't talk enough about women having to perform on the highest level while being on their period. Not easy sometimes,” Lys wrote on her Instagram story.

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Like Eva Lys, Eugenie Bouchard also shared her experience of playing tennis during periods

Eugenie Bouchard also discussed the difficulty of playing tennis with periods (image source: GETTY)

In an episode of the NotAlone podcast, Eugenie Bouchard discussed her struggles of having to play through her periods during the US Open. The Canadian considered herself fortunate as her menstrual cramps and pain came during a practice day and not on a match day.

"I've definitely experienced period cramps, pain, and I remember having that the day before the US Open in New York. And I was like, thank god this is just a practice day today because if I had to play my match today, it would be really hard," Eugenie Bouchard said.

Bouchard mentioned that it was something women had to deal with because they couldn't control their schedule.

"That's just something that we have to deal with. We cannot control the schedule," she added.

In 2023, Wimbledon, which has a strict all-white dress code, also brought a welcomed rule change that allowed women to wear different colored undergarments if they were menstruating.

Heather Watson and Coco Gauff were some of the tennis players who spoke about being relieved by the rule change. Watson recalled taking a pill in 2022 to stop the bleeding.

Elena Rybakina, the defending champion in 2023, and Shelby Rogers both donned black undershorts for their opening-round match.