‘Trying to make weight on my period left me half-dead’

As Shannon Courtenay lay on the floor, her skin burning blood red from dehydration, she questioned whether it had been worth it.

Covered in ice to soothe the pain, it was Courtenay’s doctor who had put an end to the boxer’s attempt to make weight for her bantamweight world title defence.

Shannon Courtenay was left “half-dead” from trying to make weight on her period.Credit:Getty Images

The 28-year-old had been on course to meet the 120lb (about 54 kilograms) weigh-in last October, when her period started unexpectedly. With her weight climbing, a natural response to her hormonal cycle, Courtenay was 2½lb over the permitted allowance.

The night before the fight, she put her body through “absolute hell” in a desperate attempt to try and meet the target. In a regime so gruelling that it left her looking “half dead”, the Watford boxer sat fully clothed in the sauna, and worked out in tracksuits and thermals.

“It got to the point where my body was so dehydrated while I was sweating, but the weight wasn’t coming off,” says Courtenay, in her first interview with a British newspaper since the ordeal. “I’ve got photos on my phone of large rashes on my legs, but there was no actual water in my skin, so the blood started rising to the top of my skin.

“In the end, we put a quilt from the hotel on the floor and poured ice over it. I just laid on the ice because my skin was burning so much. We spoke to a doctor on the phone and they said, ‘this is not safe. She’s very unwell – stop making her lose weight’.”

Courtenay was stripped of her title belt after being 2½lb over the limit for her fight with American Jamie Mitchell. “There was nothing more I could have physically done,” she says, the frustration cutting through her voice. “It hurt to blink to be honest, my eyes were so dry.”

Courtenay released a statement citing her menstrual cycle as the cause of her weight gain, prompting a tidal wave of abusive messages.

Many women experience excess water retention, caused by hormonal fluctuations in the menstrual cycle, gaining between 3-5lb. Courtenay says she has recorded an increase of 7lb in the past.

“This is something male athletes in weight-making sports don’t have to worry about, because their hormones run on a 24-hour cycle,” explains Dr Emma Ross, founder of the female athlete health hub, The Well HQ.

“Women might experience weight and the water retention at slightly different times, because the hormones are fluctuating across the whole 28-day cycle and can gain up to two, or even more kilograms across the menstrual cycle – that’s quite significant if you’re a weight-making athlete.”

The International Boxing Federation sets an additional 2lb weight allowance for women, and told The Telegraph it was “open to consider modifications to the rule”. The World Boxing Association and World Boxing Council did not respond to questions.

“It hurt to blink to be honest, my eyes were so dry.”

Ross recommends menstrual tracking to minimise disruption. “As an athlete, you can be really diligent and get this right. Are you staying on top of your hydration and nutrition to help both your water retention and gut and digestion to minimise any impact?”

Avoiding salty foods and staying hydrated can also help. “You might think, ‘well, I’m retaining water, why would I want to drink more?’ But actually, if you drink less, your body’s going to hold on to more water because it’s dehydrated,” explains Ross.

British judoka Gemma Howell can relate to Courtenay’s feeling of helplessness. Just days before the European bronze medallist was due to compete at the Portugal Grand Prix in January, her period arrived.

“I was doing all the extra runs, at this point I wasn’t really having any carbs,” she says. “Physically, I couldn’t have done any more, but my weight went up. I remember walking the dogs on Monday morning, crying on the phone to my dad. It did work out fine in the end – I made the weight – but I’m still dreading the time my period is going to fall on the same day as weigh day.”

In the early years of her senior career as an “extremely lean” 57 kilogram fighter, Howell rarely had periods – but gradually came to value their importance. She believes two anterior cruciate ligament injuries she sustained while competing at her lowest weight were directly linked to not having periods, and says fighting at such a low weight was detrimental to her health.

British boxer Terri Harper has spent the past two years tracking her menstrual cycle, which resulted in her moving from super featherweight to lightweight. “My menstrual cycle was messing up [before],” says Harper. “When I made the weight last time, my cycle ended up being 40 days late. Every time I made the weight, it was just so low, I’d lose my cycle.”

After Courtenay lost her title, Harper called for boxing’s governing bodies to reform regulations around making weight, with her team suggesting the current weight checks were designed for men.

For Courtenay, the abusive backlash impacted her mental health but she has since received messages from female athletes all thanking her for speaking out. “If this little blip in my life manages to help a few young girls to be open about their body problems, then it was worth it. Why should I have to hide the fact that I’m a woman?”

The Telegraph, London

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