Female Athlete Research Camp: A Unique Model For Conducting Research In High Performance Female Athletes

PURPOSE: To describe the implementation of a novel 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 Nations female Rugby League athletes completed this study, which involved 11 weeks of MC tracking, followed by attendance at a 5-week centralized 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, intended to allow investigation of effects of MC phase on various aspects of health and performance; they 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 MC, whereas athletes using hormonal contraception (athleteHC; n = 13) were tested at three equally spaced time points in which consistent exogenous hormone provision occurred. The centralized camp allowed for immediate athlete availability for “phase-based” testing as well as standardization of the athletes’ pre-test diets. RESULTS: In the athleteNC cohort, just one athlete reached criteria for “eumenorrheic” classification; five athletes were classified as naturally menstruating; and the remaining five athletes demonstrated 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), as athletes were more likely to report ≥1 symptom on bleeding (50.1%) vs. 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. Supported by: This study was embedded within the Female Athlete Research Camp, and was co-funded by Australian Catholic University, the Wu Tsai Human Performance Alliance and the Australian Institute of Sport Female Performance and Health Initiative.