Menstrual syndrome comparison of athletes and non-athletes

Purpose: Exercise was often recommended for the PMS management but in the literature there are some discrepancies. Based on this reason the purpose of this study was to evaluate the PMS status of the athletes and non-athletes. Methods: 288 athletes (age 20.47 +/- 0.15 years; menarche age 13.48 +/- 0.10 years; height 168.42 +/- 0.61 cm; weight 58.90 +/- 0.63 kg) and 242 non-athletes (age 20.32 +/- 0.19 years; menarche age 12.97 +/- 0.16 years; height 163.35 +/- 0.53 cm; weight 55.57 +/- 0.69 kg) were participated the study. The athletes' mean sports age was 11.03 +/- 0.12 years and they have a training at least 4 days a week for 2 hours [handball n=36; basketball n=59, volleyball n = 99, football n=40; taekwondo n = 54]. Demographic Data Questionnaire and Menstrual Distress Questionnaire (MDQ) (1) were used to collect data. In order to compare the syndrome scores of athletes and nonathletes Mann Whitney U test and for the comparison of menstruation characteristicsChi-square test was used. Results: The mean number of menstruation in a year, frequency of menstruation and length of menstrual flow was compared between athletes and non-athletes and no significant differences were found (p > 0.05). PMS scores were compared in each menstruation phase, and premenstrual PMS scores were found significantly higher in non-athletes than athletes (p < 0.05). Menstrual and inter-menstrual PMS scores were not found significantly different between these two groups (p > 0.05). The pain, water retention, negative affect and control scales show significantly higher scores in non-athletes than athletes in premenstrual phase (p < 0.05 and p < 0.01). Only the arousal scale scores were found significantly higher in athletes than non-athletes in premenstrual and menstrual phases (p < 0.05). Conclusion: Findings of this study show that exercise is another way to relieve premenstrual symptoms and exercise can be the most useful therapy for PMS. Exercise seems to be the best non-pharmacologic agent to overcome the symptoms of PMS.