Menstruationscykelns och p-pillers påverkan på den fysiska prestationsförmågan

Sammanfattning: Effects of Menstrual Cycle and Oral Contraceptives on Sport Performance During the menstrual cycle, there is a variation of the female steriod hormones estrogen and progestogen. These hormones has mainly reproduktive functions, but do also affect other physiological systems, which may have an influence on athletic performance. The use of oral contraceptives among female athletes matches the use among the general population. There is a concern among female athletes and there coaches weather oral contraceptives can affect the performance. The purpose of this litterature review is to determine the effect of the menstrual cycle and the use of oral contraceptives on athletic performance. Most studies indicates that neither the aerobic performance or VO₂max changes during the mestrual cycle, but an increase in ventilation during the lutheal phase has been observed. In the lutheal phase, the body temperature is elevated, which can affect the performance negatively during physical activity in hot and humid conditions. Studies evaluating the anaerobic performance shows varied results, which can be explained by few study participants, different study designs and varying definitions of menstrual cycle phase. Some studies that have examined the strength variation have not seen any difference, and others have seen an advantage during the follicular phase, when it also seems to be beneficial to train more strength training to optimize training adaptation. The use of oral contraceptives can affect the body composition of female athletes. Fat mass and BMD can increase, and is seen mainly in athleteswith mestrual dysfunctions. This can be benificial for their health and decrease the risk of injury, but may decrease performace level. The effect of oral contraceptive administration on aerobic capacity, anaerobic capacity and strength are unclear and the research has come up with varying results. Future studies should investigate oneoral contraceptive pill formulation at a time, andalso compare different formulations, to determineif that affect performance in different ways. Key words: menstruation, oral contraceptives, female athlete, performance, hormones