MENSTRUAL CYCLE HISTORY AND CURRENT ORAL CONTRACEPTIVE USAGE IN FEMALE ATHLETES

Abstract

The ovarian hormones estrogen and progesterone have been shown to have an influence on substrate metabolism, yet most research studies on female athletes do not include women who take these hormones in the form of oral contraceptives. PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to determine the menstrual cycle history as well as the prevalence of oral contraceptive (OC) use in female athletes. METHODS An anonymous questionnaire was administered to women (n = 94) mean age 19.55 ± 1.66 yrs; mean BMI 23.08 ± 2.88 who were regularly participating in sport activity. Questions asked were about regular training habits, menstrual cycle history, and oral contraceptive usage. RESULTS The results of the study show 47.5% of female athletes were currently using OC. Of the women who were oral contraceptive users, 11.6% were unsure of what brand of OC they were currently taking, 30.3% were currently taking a monophasic formula and 58.1% used a triphasic formula of OC. The mean length of oral contraceptive usage was 24.06 ± 20.9 months, ranging between 1 and 84 months. Of the athletes surveyed, both oral contraceptive users and non-oral contraceptive users, the average age of first menarche was 13.02 ± 1.42 yrs ranging from 9–16. Although most athletes report having a regular menstrual cycle, defined as having a menstrual cycle approximately every month (91.5%), 7.4% of women reported being oligomenorrheic and 1.1% reported not having a period for more than 3 months, or amenorrheic. CONCLUSSION Nearly half of all women athletes surveyed reported using oral contraceptive agents (47.5%). Researchers should not avoid this large segment of the athletic population. They need to include oral contraceptive users as a separate group to compare with normally menstruating women in studies where estrogen and progesterone may influence results.