Amenorrhoeic athletes: at risk of developing osteoporosis?

an increasing incidence of medical complications. Among these are menstrual disorders, including a delay in the onset of menstruation, oligoor amenorrhoea, and inadequacy of progesterone secretion during the luteal phase of the cycle. At first, only sporadic accounts of such disturbances appeared, suggesting that pre-existing functional derangements of cyclicity were likely to be responsible. However, the sheer volume of clinical reports now casts doubt on this view, as does a recent prospective study, in which a high proportion of women with previously normal cyclicity were observed to develop menstrual dysfunction while engaging in a graded exercise programme (Bullen et al, 1984).