Summary
The effects of 30 min of exercise (74.1±3.0% (VO2), on the responses of progesterone (P), estradiol (E2), follicle stimulating hormone (FSH), and luteinizing hormone (LH) were investigated in 10 women. With such exercise significant increments occurred in P (37.6±9.5%) and E2 (13.5±7.5%) (p<0.05), whereas no changes were observed in FSH and LH (p>0.05). Exercise in the luteal phase and during menses provoked similar changes in P, but E2 concentrations remained unchanged when exercise occurred during menses (p>0.05). With 8–11 weeks of training the menstrual cycles were quite irregular and retesting of subjects in the same phase of the cycle was not possible. Yet, when subjects were retested after training, no changes occurred in P, E2 or LH (p>0.05) but a decrement did occur in FSH (p<0.10). Thus, heavy exercise in untrained subjects provokes significant increments in ovarian hormones, whereas no such increments are observed in trained subjects exercising at the same absolute workload.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abraham, G. E., Hopper, D., Tulchinsky, D., Swerdloff, R. S., Odell, W. D.: Simultaneous measurement of plasma progesterone, 17-hydroxy-progesterone, and estradiol-17Β by radioimmunoassay. Anal. Lett. 4, 325–335 (1971)
Beck, P.: Contraceptive Steroids: Modification of carbohydrate and lipid metabolism. Metabolism 22, 841–855 (1973)
Belcastro, A. N., Bonen, A.: Lactic acid removal during controlled and uncontrolled recovery exercise. J. Appl. Physiol. 39, 932–936 (1975)
Bonen, A., Belcastro, A. N.: Effect of exercise and training on menstrual cycle hormones. Austral. J. Sports Med. 10, 39–43 (1978)
Bonen, A., Belcastro, A. N., Simpson, A. A., Ling, W.: Comparison of LH and FSH concentrations in age-group swimmers, moderately active girls and adult women. In: International series on sport sciences, Vol. 6: Swimming medicine IV (B. Eriksson and B. Furberg, eds.), pp. 70–78. Baltimore: University Park Press 1978
Bonen, A., MacIntyre, K., Belcastro, A. N., Pierce, G.: Effects of reduced hepatic and muscle glycogen depots on substrate and endocrine responses during intense exercise. Med. Sci. Sports 11, 107 (1979)
Bostofte, E., Hommingsen, L., Alling-Miller, K. J., Serup, J., Weber, T.: Serum lipids and lipoproteins during treatment with oral contraceptives containing natural and synthetic estrogens. Acta Endocrinol. 87, 855–874 (1978)
Costill, D. L., Coyle, E., Dalsky, G., Evans, W., Fink, W., Hoopes, D.: Effects of elevated plasma FFA and insulin on muscle glycogen usage during exercise. J. Appl. Physiol. 43, 695–699 (1977)
Erdelyi, G. I.: Effects of exercise on the menstrual cycle. Phys. Sports Med. 4, 79–81 (1976)
Hagenfeldt, L., Hagenfeldt, K., Wahren, J.: Influence of contraceptive steroids on turn over of plasma free arachidonic and oleic acids. Horm. Metab. Res. 9, 66–69 (1977)
Hartley, L., Mason, J. W., Hogan, R. P., Jones, L. G., Kotchen, T. A., Mougey, E. H., Wherry, F. E., Pennington, L. L., Rickets, P. T.: Multiple hormonal responses to prolonged exercise in relation to physical training. J. Appl. Physiol. 33, 607–610 (1972)
Jurkowski, J. E., Jones, N. L., Walker, W. C., Younglai, E. V., Sutton, J. R.: Ovarian hormonal responses to exercise. J. Appl. Physiol.: Respirat. Environ. Exercise Physiol. 44, 109–114 (1978)
McGrail, J. C., Bonen, A., Belcastro, A. N.: Dependence of lactate removal on muscle metabolism in man. Eur. J. Appl. Physiol. 39, 89–97 (1978)
Midgley, A. R.: Radioimmunoassay. A method for human chorionic gonadotropin and luteinizing hormone. Endocrinology 79, 10–18 (1966)
Siegel, S.: Nonparametric statistics. For the behavioral sciences, pp. 75–83. Toronto: McGraw-Hill 1956
Speroff, L., VandeWiele, R. L.: Regulation of the human menstrual cycle. Am. J. Obstet. 109, 234–247 (1971)
Sutton, J. R., Coleman, M. J., Casey, J., Lazarus, L.: Androgen responses during physical exercise. Br. Med. J. 1, 520–523 (1973)
Vorys, N., Neri, S., Boutselis, J. G.: Menstrual dysfunction. In: Gynecologic endocrinology. J. J. Gold (ed.), pp. 213–224. Hagerstown: Haper and Row 1975
Wahren, J., Felig, P., Ahlborg, G., Jorfelt, L.: Glucose metabolism in leg exercise in man. J. Clin. Invest. 50, 2715–2724 (1971)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Bonen, A., Ling, W.Y., MacIntyre, K.P. et al. Effects of exercise on the serum concentrations of FSH, LH, progesterone, and estradiol. Europ. J. Appl. Physiol. 42, 15–23 (1979). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00421100
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00421100