The Age of Initial Pointe Training Has a Weak Positive Correlation with Menarche In Female Pre-Professional Ballet Dancers

In the ballet community, there is significant pressure to start intensive and frequent training at a young age. For example, serious professional students often move away from home as teenagers to train at a ballet boarding school full-time. The sense of urgency in training stems from the relatively short careers of professional ballet dancers and the tendency of ballet companies to replace dancers quickly as they age or get injured. Specialized training so early in adolescence can lead to overuse injuries, psychological stress, and regret later in life. PURPOSE: We studied the impact of intense training (defined as start of pointe training, hours training outside of dance, and training frequency (TF) three times per week) on the menarche of female ballet dancers. METHODS: 30 female ballet dancers (age= 20.6y±1.6; height= 167.2cm±5.0; weight= 58.9kg±5.8; age of menarche= 13.6y±1.3; pointe=11.6y±1.5; TF≤10y, n=24) completed a survey at the start of the dance training season. RESULTS: There was a significant relationship between age began pointe and age of menarche (p=0.037). We observed a weak positive correlation (r=0.277, p=0.138) between the age they began pointe and the age of menarche. Achilles tendon echogenicity and dancer BMI were included in the model but were not significant variables (p=0.063 and 0.321 respectively). CONCLUSION: In our analysis, we found a weak positive correlation between the age the participants began pointe and the age of menarche. This suggests that as the age at which a dancer started pointe increased, it was associated with a later onset of menses. Our weak correlation suggests that there are likely many factors which influence the onset of menses.