Strength Performance Across the Oral Contraceptive Cycle of Team Sport Athletes: A Cross-Sectional Study

> 0.05). These results support the notion that knee-extensor and flexor isokinetic and isometric strength performance does not differ between phases of oral contraceptive cycle in well-trained team sport athletes. OCP intake is suggested to cause a stable but downregulated hormone cycle, which has no effect on knee-extensor and flexor strength when comparing oral contraceptive cycle phases. Therefore, manipulation of the female cycle using OCP in order to achieve a higher knee-extensor and flexor strength performance does not seem to be justified; however, it is currently unclear if cycle manipulation might affect other physiological systems.