Are you a female athlete who wants to optimise your performance using recent research insights? If so, then this free course is for you. It addresses the problem of sports science research traditionally being male dominated and the assumption that if it works for men then it must work for women. It allows you to explore specific female physiological and psychological topics such as relationships between the menstrual cycle, breast support, pelvic floor health and physical performance. You will also find out more about how to effectively communicate with female athletes.

Watch the following video presented by Emma Ross, winner of the Gamechangers award at the Sunday Times Sports woman of the year event in 2021.

This OpenLearn course was produced with the kind support of Dangoor Education, the educational arm of The Exilarch's Foundation

Enrolling on the course will give you the opportunity to earn an Open University digital badge. Badges are not accredited by The Open University but they're a great way to demonstrate your interest in the subject and commitment to your career, and to provide evidence of continuing professional development.

Once you are signed in, you can manage your digital badges online from My OpenLearn. In addition, you can download and print your OpenLearn statement of participation – which also displays your Open University badge.

The Open University would really appreciate a few minutes of your time to tell us about yourself and your expectations for the course before you begin, in our start-of-course survey . Once you complete the course we would also value your feedback and suggestions for future improvement, in our end-of-course survey . Participation will be completely confidential and we will not pass on your details to others.

Course learning outcomes

After studying this course, you should be able to:

• understand the physiological and psychological differences between men and women and between individual women
• identify female-specific issues that need to be considered to promote the health, fitness and wellbeing of female athletes
• recognise the gender gap in research between males and females and its impact on female health and performance.