Impact of stress and physical activity level on menstrual disorders among university female athletes

Abstract

Female university athletes are highly vulnerable to stress due to the demands of academic work, examinations, sports training, competitions, and other social interactions. Both psychological and physiological thresholds can directly affect their menstrual cycle and can direct to different menstrual disorders. Hence, the objective of the current study is to identify the prevalence of menstrual disorders and the effect of stress and physical activity level on menstrual disorder types among female university athletes in Sri Lanka. A cross-sectional survey was carried out recruiting 167 (n=167) female university athletes age ranged from 20 to 29 years. A purposive sampling technique was used to select participants who actively engaged in university sports. Modified Rhinessa Women’s Questionnaire was used to gather the data on menstrual disorders and the Perceived Stress Scale was used to identify the stress among participants while the International Physical Activity Questionnaire was used to identify the physical activity level of the participants. Data were analyzed using SPSS software (version 22.0). Data were not normally distributed, hence non-parametric tests were employed to analyze the data. Results revealed that 86.8% of the participants were having normal menstrual cycles while 13.2% reported menstrual irregularities. From that, 4.8% of the participants reported primary amenorrhea, 4.8% showed oligomenorrhea, 3.0% showed secondary amenorrhea, and 0.6% showed polymenorrhea. Furthermore, 5.4% of the participants who had normal menstrual cycles reported dysmenorrhea. A considerable percentage (13.2%) of the participants showed menstrual irregularities and the prevalence was high in primary amenorrhea, oligomenorrhea, and secondary amenorrhea irregularity types. Female university athletes showed moderate levels of perceived stress (19.10 ± 4.56) during the data collection period. Kruskal Wallis test revealed that there is no significant difference between perceived stress and menstrual disorder types among female university athletes (p > 0.05). Furthermore, the Kruskal Wallis test revealed that there is a significant difference between physical activity level and menstrual disorder types among female university athletes (p < 0.05). Menstrual disorders may negatively affect the health of female athletes. Since there is a very limited number of studies have been conducted using university female athletes and the effect of perceived stress and physical activity level on menstrual disorders, more research is needed to confirm the present outcome. High physical activity levels may be the reason for these irregularities. Thus, more research is needed to conclude the present results.