Cardiorespiratory response to exercise in endurance-trained premenopausal and postmenopausal females

• Published in: European journal of applied physiology Vol. 121; no. 3; pp. 903 - 913
• Main Authors: Rael, Beatriz, Barba-Moreno, Laura, Romero-Parra, Nuria, Alfaro-Magallanes, Víctor M., Castro, Eliane A., Cupeiro, Rocío, Peinado, Ana B.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.03.2021; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biomedicine; Blood pressure; Dual energy X-ray absorptiometry; EKG; Exercise; Females; Gases; Heart rate; Human Physiology; Mercury; Occupational Medicine/Industrial Medicine; Original Article; Physical fitness; Physical training; Post-menopause; Sex hormones; Sports Medicine; Heart rate; Oxygen consumption; Ventilation; Blood pressure; Oral contraceptive; Menstrual cycle
• ISSN: 1439-6319; 1439-6327
• DOI: 10.1007/s00421-020-04574-4

Purpose To assess the influence of different hormonal profiles on the cardiorespiratory response to exercise in endurance-trained females. Methods Forty-seven eumenorrheic females, 38 low-dose monophasic oral contraceptive (OC) users and 13 postmenopausal women, all of them endurance-trained, participated in this study. A DXA scan, blood sample tests and a maximal aerobic test were performed under similar low-sex hormone levels: early follicular phase for the eumenorrheic females; withdrawal phase for the OC group and at any time for postmenopausal women. Cardiorespiratory variables were measured at resting and throughout the maximal aerobic test (ventilatory threshold 1, 2 and peak values). Heart rate (HR) was continuously monitored with a 12-lead ECG. Blood pressure (BP) was measured with an auscultatory method and a calibrated mercury sphygmomanometer. Expired gases were measured breath-by-breath with the gas analyser Jaeger Oxycon Pro. Results One-way ANCOVA reported a lower peak HR in postmenopausal women (172.4 ± 11.7 bpm) than in eumenorrheic females (180.9 ± 10.6 bpm) ( p  = 0.024). In addition, postmenopausal women exhibited lower VO 2 (39.1 ± 4.9 ml/kg/min) compared to eumenorrheic females (45.1 ± 4.4 ml/kg/min) in ventilatory threshold 2 ( p  = 0.009). Nonetheless, respiratory variables did not show differences between groups at peak values. Finally, no differences between OC users and eumenorrheic females’ cardiorespiratory response were observed in endurance-trained females. Conclusions Cardiorespiratory system is impaired in postmenopausal women due to physiological changes caused by age and sex hormones’ decrement. Although these alterations appear not to be fully compensated by exercise, endurance training could effectively mitigate them. In addition, monophasic OC pills appear not to impact cardiorespiratory response to an incremental running test in endurance-trained females.