Female Athlete Research Camp: A Unique Model for Conducting Research in High Performance Female Athletes

Abstract

ABSTRACT Purpose To describe the implementation of a novel research protocol for conducting research with highly-trained female athletes, including characterising menstrual cycle (MC) function, hormonal profiles and symptoms of the participating athletes. Methods Twenty-four Australian First Nation female Rugby League athletes completed this study, which involved 11 weeks of cycle tracking, followed by attendance at a 5-week training camp. Throughout the study, athletes completed a daily survey, reporting their MC function and any associated symptoms. During the training camp, athletes reported to the laboratory on three occasions and provided a venous blood sample, which was analysed for reproductive hormones. For naturally cycling athletes (athleteNC, n = 11), this included Phase 1, 2 and 4 of the menstrual cycle, whereas athletes using hormonal contraception (athleteHC; n = 13) were tested at three equally spaced time points in which consistent exogenous hormone provision occurred. Results In the athleteNC cohort, just one athlete reached criteria for classification as eumenorrheic, with five athletes showing evidence of MC dysfunction. The prevalence of symptoms on any given day was similar between athleteNC (33.7%) and athleteHC (22.9%; p = 0.376), however more symptoms were reported in athleteNC, suggesting that they were more likely to report multiple symptoms. Regardless of MC function, there was a significant, positive association between bleeding and symptoms (p < 0.001), where athletes were more likely to report one or more symptoms on bleeding (50.1%) compared to non-bleeding days (22.0%). Conclusions We describe an innovative strategy to investigate the effect of MC function and MC phase in a high-performance sport environment, including approaches to address the challenges of undertaking research with female athletes with MC variability and those using exogenous hormonal therapies.