Research

Hormonal

Exercise-induced amenorrhea in female runners is associated with significant reductions in cortical and trabecular bone density and mineral content compared to eumenorrheic runners and normal controls.

If you are a female runner who has stopped menstruating for more than 6 months, your bone density may be decreasing despite your high activity levels. This is likely due to low estrogen. You should consult a physician to address the amenorrhea, as exercise alone may not protect your bones in this state.

GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
There was a significant reduction in both cortical and trabecular bone density and trabecular bone mineral content in amenorrheic runners when compared with those values in normal controls and eumenorrheic runners.
Jill S. Lindberg et al. · Annals of Internal Medicine · 1984

Why this rating

Observational study with clear groupings and statistical significance, but lacks longitudinal intervention data.

Source

Exercise-Induced Amenorrhea and Bone Density

Jill S. Lindberg et al. · Annals of Internal Medicine · 1984

DOI 10.7326/0003-4819-101-5-647

cross_sectional · n=55Cited 174×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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