Dysmenorrhea (menstrual cramps) is a one of the big problems that many women suffers. It has been previously reported that dysmenorrhea is associated with lifestyle habit including sleep, exercise, smoking, and alcohol. Many female athletes have been reported to suffer with dysmenorrhea, however, the prevalence and impact of dysmenorrhea and in relation to lifestyle in Japanese female athletes are not clarified yet. PURPOSE: To investigate the prevalence and impact of dysmenorrhea in Japanese female athletes. METHOD: S 98 collegiate female athletes participated in this study (mean age 21±1.6). Sports type in participants were soccer (n=23), track and field (n=31), kendo (n=13), wheel gymnastics (n=10), lacrosse (n=21). Demographic information questions addressed age, height, weight, length of sporting career, and training volume (training hour, training frequency per week, training hour per time). Lifestyle habits questions included daily wake-up time and bedtime, sleeping hours, dietary habit, coffee-drinking, alcohol-drinking and smoking habits. Age of menarche, day counts of menstrual cycle, day counts of menstruation, dysmenorrhea symptoms (e.g.; breast tenderness, abdominal pain, low back pain, headache), dysmenorrhea severity (from 0 to 10; none to very severe), and medication during menstruation were asked in the menstrual questionnaire. RESULTS: The dysmenorrhea symptom that many subjects complained were lower abdominal pain and fatigue. Length of sporting career, menarche age, training habits and lifestyle habits did not show significant correlation with severity of dysmenorrhea. However, the prevalence of severe dysmenorrhea positively correlated significantly with age (p = 0.004, r = 0.29). CONCLUSIONS: In this study, we showed that severity of dysmenorrhea was associated with older age in Japanese female athletes. Therefore, in female athletes it is necessary to deal with dysmenorrhea considering age.