Historically, one reason female athletes have been excluded from physical performance studies is that researchers believed that the female menstrual cycle altered women’s performance and would undermine study findings. But what are the effects of the menstrual cycle on endurance performance?
New research shows that in studies of high-intensity aerobic endurance performance, the phase of the menstrual cycle does not need to be taken into account. In other words, the performance of eumenorrheic females (women with regular periods unmarked by abnormal pain) was not impacted by the menstrual cycle phase.
“Women have historically been excluded from research because people didn’t know how to control for the menstrual cycle,” said senior study author Jayson R. Gifford, PhD, assistant professor of exercise sciences at Brigham Young University in Salt Lake City. “Now our data, and the majority of other data, indicate that you don’t need to control for it. That should help boost inclusion of female subjects in research and increase our understanding of female physiology.”
This is not the case for women with irregular or painful periods, however. Gifford estimates that about 15%–30% of menstruating women may have menstrual disorders that require discussion with a healthcare provider. More research is required to better understand why women have irregular or painful periods.
In other data analysis, gender differences influenced the relationship between percentages of lean body mass and power output. Researchers note that prior male-only data in scientific studies may not apply to female subjects.
The study on the effects of the menstrual cycle on endurance performance is reported in the Journal of Applied Physiology (2023; doi:10.1152/japplphysiol.00416.2022).
See also: Understanding Women’s Menstrual Cycle and Needs
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