What does this research mean for the field?

Hormonal contraceptive use among exercising women is associated with a lower frequency of menstrual cycle symptom clusters compared to non-users, with usage patterns and types varying significantly by age and country. Novelty: ClaimNovelty.INCREMENTAL. Consensus alignment: ConsensusAlignment.NEUTRAL.

What question did this study set out to answer?

To identify factors related to hormonal contraceptive use and its association with menstrual cycle symptoms in exercising women across different countries.

April 23, 2026

Hormonal contraceptive use prevalence and its association with menstrual cycle symptom clusters among exercising women in seven different countries

Puntos clave

To identify factors related to hormonal contraceptive use and its association with menstrual cycle symptoms in exercising women across different countries.
Sent surveys via the STRAVA™ App to 7,766 exercising women across seven countries.
Examined associations between contraceptive use, reasons for use, and menstrual symptoms using principal component analysis.
40.1% of women reported using hormonal contraceptives, primarily for pregnancy avoidance.
Three distinct symptom clusters were identified, with HC users experiencing less frequent symptoms than non-users.
Differences in symptom clusters were noted among users depending on the type of hormonal contraceptive.

Resumen

We aimed to identify factors associated with the prevalence of contraceptive use in exercising women, including reason for usage and receipt of information about the relationship between menstruation and sports, and menstrual cycle symptom clusters in hormonal contraceptive (HC) users and non-users. A survey about contraceptive use and menstrual cycle symptoms was sent to women via the STRAVA™ App. Associations between country, age, training intensity, contraceptive use, reason for use, receipt of information about the relationship between the menstrual cycle and sports were examined. Principal component analysis identified menstrual cycle symptom clusters. Of 7,766 women, 40.1 percent reported using a hormonal contraceptive, and type varied by age (p p 1, and hormonal contraceptive use was associated with lower frequency of all three clusters compared to nonusers. Among contraceptive users, factor-based scores for Cluster 3 varied significantly by contraceptive type (p = .008), while Cluster 1 (p = .144) and Cluster 2 (p = .611) did not. These findings underscore the importance of providing exercising women with tailored information about hormonal contraception options to support informed decision-making.

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Cite This Study

Freemas et al. (Tue,) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/69e9b95b85696592c86ec124 https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1080/03630242.2026.2648530

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