Research

Hormonal

Menstrual dysfunction (MD) in female endurance athletes is associated with lower resting metabolic rate (RMR) compared to eumenorrheic athletes, independent of energy availability status.

If you are a female endurance athlete and your menstrual cycle has become irregular or stopped, do not assume it is normal. This is a sign that your body is under stress, possibly from low energy intake, and your metabolism may be slowing down. Seek medical evaluation to assess your energy availability and hormonal health.

GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
Subjects with MD had lower RMR [28.6 ± 2.4 kcal/kg FFM/day vs 30.2 ± 1.8 kcal/kg FFM/day (P = 0.029)] and RMRratio [0.87 ± 0.08 vs 0.93 ± 0.06, (P = 0.007)], compared with the eumenorrheic subjects.
Anna Melin et al. · Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports · 2014

Why this rating

Observational data with significant P-values, but confounded by the overlap between MD and low EA.

Source

Energy availability and the female athlete triad in elite endurance athletes

Anna Melin et al. · Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports · 2014

DOI 10.1111/sms.12261

cross_sectional · n=40Cited 282×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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