The influence of menstrual cycle on ankle proprioception

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of the three phases (menstrual, follicular, luteal phase) of the menstrual cycle on active and passive ankle joint position sense. Twenty five healthy women with regular menstrual cycle, not pregnant and no contraceptive using with normal and consistent length of menstrual cycle and bleeding days participated in the study. Blood samples were collected from each subject for determination of hormonal level the phases of menstrual cycle. Ankle joint position sense changes during three different phases of the menstrual cycle were assessed. Active and passive joint position sense of dominant leg of subjects was measured using the Biodex 2 isokinetic dynamometer. The absolute reposition errors from the target angles have been evaluated by repeated measure analysis of variance (ANOVA) in three hormonally verified phases of menstrual cycle. No significant interaction was observed between ankle joint position sense test and the phases of the menstrual cycle. We did not identify ankle joint position sense alteration across the menstrual, follicular and luteal phases. We suggest that the menstrual cycle does not significantly affect ankle joint position sense.