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21 March 2010



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Female athletes and contraception – a need to be better informed
[28 January 2010 - 11h59]

Why do you use contraception? This was the question put to a panel of top-level French sportswomen training at INSEP (the French National Sport and Physical Education Institute) in Paris. Some of the responses they gave were rather unexpected…

Dr Carole Maître and her colleagues at INSEP were carrying out research into contraceptive practices among top level female athletes. They questioned 404 sportswomen via a questionnaire and then compared their responses with those of 369 non-sportswomen belonging to the same age group. The latter therefore formed a control group.

Their results show that the age when menstruation begins is slightly later among sportswomen (13.3 years old) than among the other group (12.9 years old). What’s more, one athlete in four reported problems with her menstrual cycle, compared with one woman in nine in the other group.

Contraceptive use is significantly lower among the female athletes (60%) than among the women in the control group (77%). More surprisingly, the women in each group did not use contraception for the same reasons. While almost all the non-sportswomen (94%) used it primarily to prevent conception, only 79% of the athletes used it mainly for this reason.

However – and this is less surprising given the requirements associated with competitive sport – a higher number of sportswomen wanted to ensure that they had regular periods (57% compared with 34%). It is also worth noting that a higher number of sportswomen were concerned about controlling period pain (31% compared with 22%) and reducing blood loss (17% compared with 13%).

Finally, the researchers found that female athletes are poorly informed about contraception. Their results highlight the need to improve information and get rid of misconceptions among top-level sportswomen about the supposedly harmful effects of contraception.


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