THE EFFECT OF DANCE TRAINING ON MENSTRUAL FUNCTION IN COLLEGIATE DANCING STUDENTS

A total of 98 dancing students from a collegiate school of dancing were studied through interview using a highly structured questionnaire to elicit details of the duration and intensity of dance training, menstrual patterns and musculoskeletal injuries sustained during training; 70 (72%) of these dancing students were eumenorrhoeic, while 15 (15.4%) had oligomenorrhoea. Thirteen (13.4%) either had amenorrhoea for over 90 days at the time of the study, or were on hormonal treatment because of amenorrhoea for over 3 months in the past 1 year. Those who were amenorrhoeic had longer training hours per week when compared with eumenorrhoeic and oligomenorrhoeic students. Both oligomenorrhoeic and amenorrhoeic students had a lower body mass index (18.25 kg/m(2) and 18.26 kg/m(2) versus 19.45 kg/m(2), p < 0.01), and a higher incidence of musculoskeletal injuries and chronic orthopaedic problems compared to eumenorrhoeic ones. Ballet students had a higher incidence of menstrual dysfunction and musculoskeletal injuries as compared to classic Chinese dance, modern dance and musical theatre dance students as well as a significantly lower average body mass index. These data suggest a proportional correlation between menstrual dysfunction and proneness to musculoskeletal injuries in training, which could be explained by a hormonal mechanism.