Female athletes are to benefit from a major breakthrough in insurance cover for pregnancy, contraception, menopause and other health conditions, as part of the implementation of recommendations in the Carney review.
The Women’s Football Taskforce commissioned Loughborough University – announced recently as the world’s No 1 university for sports-related subjects for a 10th consecutive year – to work with leading insurance providers and brokers to ensure female athletes are offered appropriate support in their insurance coverage.
The changes to insurance provisions for female athletes will address specifically the blind spots that exist in regards to pregnancy, contraception, menopause, health conditions and conditions that disproportionately affect women, such as relative energy deficiency in sport (Red-S).
Red-S is a complex syndrome caused by low energy availability, where an athlete’s food intake does not meet the demands of training. This can lead to metabolic, hormonal and physiological changes, with common indicators including stress fractures and disruptions to the menstrual cycle.
“Seeing the recommendations being taken seriously and resulting in tangible improvements is always amazing,” said Karen Carney, the former England international turned pundit whose independent review of women’s football was published in July 2023. “This development coming to fruition justifies why the report was important and I’d like to thank all the people involved that helped make this happen.”
Stephanie Peacock, the minister for sport and chair of the taskforce, which was set up by the government to progress the Carney review, said: “It is incredibly welcome to see this positive change driven by the Women’s Football Taskforce. I would like to pay tribute to the insurers and particularly to Prof Jo Maher [the pro-vice-chancellor for sport at Loughborough University] for driving this work forward in order to make a tangible difference to the products offered to sportswomen.”
The move is part of the government’s commitment to a “decade of change” for women’s and girls’ sport and follows the announcement this year that 1,000 community projects across the UK are benefiting from new all-weather pitches, extended playing hours through more floodlights, and modernised training facilities designed to better serve underrepresented groups such as women and girls.
It also follows the implementation of several other recommendations of the Carney review, including the introduction of a minimum salary in the Women’s Super League and the representation of players in the WSL and WSL2 by the Professional Footballers’ Association.
The British Insurance Brokers’ Association, which has a commitment on supporting women in sport, is working with brokers such as Aon, Willis, Miller, Howden and Marsh to identify which current exclusions can be reinstated in policies, with Aon the first to extend their personal accident policies to include miscarriage as a result of a sporting accident as standard.
Meanwhile, the specialist insurer Axis has also begun reviewing its professional sports personal accident products, and the Association for British Insurers, together with leading insurers including Vitality, is reviewing insurance and terms available for female athletes across the wider industry.
Maher said: “Developing products for female athletes marks an important step in ensuring we drive world class and equitable standards in women’s sport.
“I would like to thank all of the partners from the insurance industry for listening to colleagues from across the sports sector and responding so positively. Together we can level the playing field and continue to build on the brilliant performances of our national teams and athletes.”
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