Characteristics of the Menstrual Cycle According to the Sports Groups of the New Generation of Female Athletes

Abstract

PURPOSE To examine the characteristics of menstrual cycles in female athletes in different sports, comparison of possible deviations and changes associated with new generations of female athletes in training processes. METHODS The research included a total of 143 respondents (average age 17.46 ± 2.61; average training experience 8.67 ± 3.85) who were divided into three groups: sports games (n=59), martial arts (n= 16) and aesthetic sports (n= 68). An anonymous survey specially prepared for the needs of this research was conducted among the respondents. The results were processed in the IBM SPSS program, v.26. Comparisons by sports categories were made using the Chi-square test for categorical variables and Kruskal-Walis analysis of variance for ordinal variables. In the case of significant differences obtained by Kruskal - Wallis analysis, the Dunn-Bonferroni post hoc test was performed to determine between which groups there is a difference. A logistic regression analysis was performed to predict the regularity of the menstrual cycle using age, length and duration of training and sport category. RESULTS The groups of sports do not differ from each other with regard to cycle regularity (p=0.088). There are no differences between sports groups (p=0.935) in cycle changes. There is also no difference in duration (p=0.883) and abundance of bleeding (p=0.700). A slightly higher irregularity of menstrual cycles was observed in the martial sports group. CONCLUSION The examined characteristics of the menstrual cycle of the new generation of female athletes according to the sports groups in this research did not show significant changes, but they were noticeable in the martial sports group. Although there is a common difference in the training duration of individual sports groups, future research and monitoring of the menstrual cycle in female athletes should be further reduced according to the possible effects on the reproductive and general health of female athletes.