Word: menstrual
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...Health (NIH) grant, to closely examine the effects of exercise on "elite oarswomen," who are female athletes between 20 and 30 years of age and are competing for spots on the lightweight or heavyweight national rowing teams. The research, which should explain why only some exercising women experience the menstrual dysfunction that can lead to a reduced cancer risk, will include studies on the amount and location of fat present in the bodies of participants, as well as body fat's effect on the way estrogen is metabolized...
Frisch began the bulk of her work in the late 1970s, when she found that a group of ballet dancers she analyzed had a late menarche compared to their non-athletic peers. By 1981, Frisch broadened her study, analyzing the menstrual cycles of runners and swimmers on college varsity teams...
This later study confirmed her previous results, as she found that the selected athletes had a delayed menarche, a "lean" build and irregular menstrual cycles...
Frisch also concluded that some women athletes, who have lost a significant amount of body weight due to strenuous exercise, experience menstrual dysfunction and may become temporarily infertile...
Researchers believe the benefits occur because exercise shuts down the production of certain reproductive hormones in both men and women. The effect is more pronounced, however, in females. Vigorous training, for example, can temporarily lengthen or even eliminate a runner's menstrual cycle. The response appears to have a healthy effect. In a separate study of ten rowers at Harvard, Frisch found that active women produce a less potent form of estrogen than their sedentary counterparts. Result: breast and uterine tumors that depend on the hormone cannot develop as easily. In addition, athletes lack excess body fat, which can predispose...