| Description |
Few studies have investigated the role of selection and inheritance in the occurrence of primary and secondary amenorrhea and oligomenorrhea. It is known that menstrual dysfunction is more prevalent in certain groups of athletes, particularly gymnasts, as opposed to nonathletes. Perhaps it is possible that certain sports, particularly gymnastics, may selectively eliminate those athletes who will be unsuccessful by the time they reach reproductive maturity. Perhaps it is also possible that amenorrheic athletes simply inherited their menstrual irregularities from their mothers. Descriptively investigating these possibilities in the; form of a survey questionnaire was the objective of this study. A secondary purpose was to characterize maladaptive eating and weight control behaviors, which have been also been linked to athletic amenorrhea. The subjects in this study included current and retired members of the United States Gymnastics Federation over 18 years of age and their mothers. Among the gymnasts, 78.7% were elite level athletes and 21.3% were junior olympic athletes of national caliber. The issue of the inheritance of menstrual dysfunction from mother to gymnast was not supported by this study. Mothers' age at menarche (12.9 years) was statistically different from gymnasts' age at menarche (15.6 years) (t(60)=-8.65, p<.OOl). Further, mothers' age at menarche was not different from the age at menarche of her other daughters (13.4 years) (t(35)=-1.SS, p=.13), or the gymnasts' sisters. Analysis of weight control methods indicated two alarming results: (1) the prevalence of disordered eating (59%) and specific food restrictions were significant, and (2) most mothers were unaware of the unsafe weight control methods employed by their daughters to maintain low body weights. Specifically, 26.2% of mothers indicated they knew such weight control behaviors existed on the part of their daughters while 59% of gymnasts actually used such practices. |
