Females accounted for only 24% of participants in exercise-induced cardiac adaptation research, with female-only studies comprising just 5% of the literature versus 54% for male-only studies.
There is a significant underrepresentation of female athletes, diverse ethnicities, and para-athletes in exercise-induced cardiac adaptation research, highlighting a critical need for more inclusive study designs.
‘Athlete’s heart’ is well-documented in males, but female-specific data remains limited despite increasing participation in women’s sport. This systematic review examined studies investigating exercise-induced cardiac adaptation, auditing female athlete representation and methodological quality using a standardised framework. A total of 767 articles met inclusion, comprising 94,744 participants. Male-only cohorts made up 54% of studies (n = 416), whereas female-only studies represented just 5% (n = 38). Only 7% (n = 56) of studies included a male-female sub-analysis, while 3% of studies (n = 21) employed direct sex-comparative design. Notably, 6% of studies (n = 44) did not report participant sex at all. Females accounted for less than one-quarter of the total sample (24%, n = 23,061 participants). Football (soccer) was the most represented sport overall (n = 13,582 participants) and in male-only studies (n = 5,242 participants). Long-distance running was the most common in female-only studies (n = 240 participants). Ethnicity was reported in 17% of studies (n = 127; 43,683 participants), with 80% of participants identified as Caucasian and 16% as African/Afro-Caribbean. Para-athletes comprised 0.4% of the total cohort. Echocardiography was the predominant imaging modality (88%), with 97% of studies reporting left ventricular parameters. Only 10 studies (3% of those including females) provided sufficient information to classify menstrual status, and none met best-practice recommendations. These findings highlight the need to prioritise diverse female athlete cohorts, including para-athletes, broader ethnic representation, and wider range of sport domains, to enable accurate clinical interpretation and equitable cardiovascular assessment in women.
Henley-Martin et al. (2026) studied this question. Females accounted for only 24% of participants in exercise-induced cardiac adaptation research, with female-only studies comprising just 5% of the literature versus 54% for male-only studies.