The Relationship Between Irregular Menstrual Cycle and Bone Stress Injuries in Female Athletes

Abstract

Irregular menstrual cycle (IMC) is commonly observed among women athletes due to different internal and external factors such as continuous exercise, increase stress, pressure and other associated factors. Therefore, an IMC not only impact the reproductive wellbeing of women, it also negatively impacts their psychological and physical wellbeing. The usage of hormonal contraceptives (HC) is commonly observed among women athletes with IMC. This study mainly focuses on the association between IMC, HC usage and bone stress injuries (BSI) among women athletes from “Youth and Sport Administration” (YSA) in Turkey. It is a cross-sectional study. For this study, the data was collected via online survey. About 1010 women athletes from YSA participated in this study. The mean age of the selected participants was greater than 18 years. An online survey was conducted to determine different factors which influence the IMC and HC usage among women athletes. The results obtained from this study showed that 480 of the participants had a past history of IMC while 530 had no past history of IMC. There was a significant association between IMC and the current usage of HC (p= 0.0031). The women athletes with past IMC have higher menarche age than the athletes who did not have IMC in the past (p< 0.0011). Additionally, 255 of the women athletes stated to have a past history of BSI. The use of HC was prevalent among the women athletes. Most of them utilized HC for birth control and maintaining their menstrual cycle. Therefore, it is difficult to monitor IMC among the women athletes who are taking HC.