More than underwear, how bras can make or break your health

As Director of Health and Youth Programs, Rachel Skanes has two roles in the Special Olympics Nova Scotia provincial chapter. When she is not running sport programs for younger athletes like Active Start and FUNdamentals, Rachel is leading her chapter’s Healthy Athletes initiatives, to improve the medical wellbeing of people with IDD.

Their research into the health of women and girls with IDD has been impactful on a national level. A big focus of their research is intersectionality.

Intersectionality refers to how a person’s two different traits intersect to change how they are treated in society. For example, women face hardships that men do not usually experience, and people with a developmental disability may be treated badly in a way that those without a disability generally do not have to deal with. Therefore, a woman with a developmental disability has intersectional challenges, and—as Special Olympics Nova Scotia’s research is finding out—she may have to deal with unique problems based on both her condition and her gender.

Race, sexuality, religion, and other political traits can also change a person’s life experience. Statistics show that people with IDD tend to have a lower socio-economic status, meaning they tend to have less money than most people, and struggle  to find work or education. While these things are not directly caused by someone’s disability, they do intersectionally affect people with IDD.

Because many Special Olympics athletes have a low socio-economic status, they often cannot afford clothing that fits them properly. While Special Olympics Ontario has found this means athletes often wear shoes that do not fit their feet properly—leading to health issues—Rachel said her office in Nova Scotia found a similar problem with female athletes not wearing bras that fit.

“We had many athletes that needed the bras,” Rachel said about a recent survey her Healthy Athletes program did.

She explained there are generally two sizes to a woman’s bra: cup size, and band width. The cups are where a woman’s breast goes into, and they are supposed to keep the breasts from moving around too much without being painful. Straps go around the woman’s back and shoulders, to keep their cups in place. Rachel said the Nova Scotia athletes who were surveyed often needed larger bra sizes. People with IDD are more likely to be overweight or obese, and Rachel said this has some connections to the bra fitting survey, since having extra fat changes the shape of your body.

However, clothing companies often make bras within a limited range of sizes and shapes, meaning that a lot of women cannot buy generic underwear from the local store. Rachel said most stores do not make bras bigger than a G cup, and also only make bras with large strap sizes if they also come with a large cup. 

Special Olympics Nova Scotia found a lot of their athletes either had breasts big enough to need a custom bra. They also found a lot of athletes needed a “large” size strap to fit around their torso, while also having a smaller cup size. When they’re unable to buy a custom sports bra, women with this body shape may feel like they either have to settle for a bra that does not support their breasts—causing them to painfully move around during exercise—or pick one with tight bands that dig into their skin, causing the rashes and infections Rachel described.

Unfortunately, custom bras are often too expensive for people with IDD to buy, especially if they are concerned about being able to pay food or rent. This is why Special Olympics Nova Scotia started providing athletes with personalized measurements and custom-made bras for free. 

After getting their fitted sports bras, Rachel “100% of Special Olympics Nova Scotia athletes who received a bra had an improvement to their athletic performance”, because they can move their bodies properly without feeling pain or discomfort.

While this is a great story that proves how much Healthy Athletes programs can benefit Special Olympics athletes, there are still areas of medical care that Special Olympics staff members and volunteer clinical directors need to learn more about. That is why we partner with researchers from various universities and other charities. 

In the case of Special Olympics Nova Scotia, they partnered with Essentials Lingerie, who are the official bra fitting company for both their organization and Pelvico Health Centre. Dr. Laura St. John, The University of Calgary and St. John Exercise Lab also attended Nova Scotia’s sport bra program, providing education and resources regarding breast health, menstrual health and menopause. 

Olympics Nova Scotia also partnered Breast Cancer Canada to help connect their athletes with mammograms.

“We partner with the Halifax representative.” Rachel said. “She attended our Healthy Athletes screening day and provided education to our athletes on what to expect during a mammogram, to decrease anxieties about going to one. We also had [our volunteer] clinical directors discuss with athletes, to explain to them with a mammogram would look like and how to book an appointment.”

As one of the most common types of this deadly disease, breast cancer mostly affects women, although men or non-binary people can get it too. Rachel said that, in her province, women who turn 40 are supposed to get a mammogram to diagnose any signs of breast cancer, and women should start checking themselves for signs of breast cancer well before they turn middle-aged. Young women with a family history of breast cancer—meaning they are related to someone who got the disease—should check themselves even earlier.

As ground-breaking as this research from Special Olympics Nova Scotia is, it is only part of their findings around the unique intersection of gender, biological sex, and intellectual/developmental disability. There are other impacts on the health of women and girls with IDD outside of the clothes they wear, and more barriers that Healthy Athletes programs are working to break down.