ABSTRACT
Research relating to reproductive health in women over the past twenty years has highlighted the implications of amenorrhoea, oligomenorrhoea and delayed menarche on psychological wellbeing, injury susceptibility, fertility and future health. Associations between reduced hormone levels and impaired muscle phosphocreatine recovery rates (Harber et al., 1998) and lowered basal metabolic rates also suggest possible implications for sports performance. To date, exercise-induced menstrual dysfunction is largely unexplored in ‘winter sports’ athletes. Altered training seasons and colder training conditions in countries with altered light/dark cycles (i.e. shorter days) may have an effect on the complex endocrine system which controls the menstrual cycle.
