One of the more common questions asked in regards to women and scuba diving is whether women divers are more likely to be attacked by sharks than male divers. There are a lot of misconceptions out there about this topic, which lends itself to unnecessary fear and speculation.
The truth of the matter is that there is no data to support the idea that women are at greater risk of shark attacks than men are.
Although many women who dive are concerned that menstruation may attract sharks, female scuba divers are not at increased risk of shark attacks, even during their menstrual periods.
Sharks have an extremely accute sense of smell, and they can easily tell the difference between the blood that comes from an injured animal and menstrual blood. Sharks are attracted to injury-related bloodflow, but they are not attracted to menstrual blood.
This is because sharks prefer to feed on fresh prey. Blood that comes from an injured animal is composed of fresh, live blood cells, indicating to the shark that the source of the blood is either still alive (and probably weakened by injury) or very recently killed. Menstrual blood, on the other hand, is composed of older, dead blood cells, which does not attract sharks.
Consequently, even though sharks have a keen sense of smell and can sense the presence of blood in the water even in very small concentrations, scuba diving during menstruation does not create an increased risk of shark attacks.
Divers Alert Network has a helpful write-up on the subject of menstruation and diving on their website, which I recommend reading. In addition to dispelling the myths about women and shark attacks, it provides pertinent information on several other considerations related to women diving during their menstrual period, the most important of which is a possible increase in susceptibility to decompression illness (DCI.) DAN also has a lot of other information available on their website regarding women's health issues and scuba diving, which you can find here.
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