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Item Improving menstrual health literacy in sport.(Elsevier B.V., 2023-07-19) McGawley K; Sargent D; Noordhof D; Badenhorst CE; Julian R; Govus ADMenstrual health represents a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being in relation to a woman's menstrual cycle. From a health literacy perspective, knowledge acquisition and expertise are dependent upon the degree to which an individual can find, access, understand, critically analyse, and apply health information. Therefore, menstrual health literacy can be used to describe the state of knowledge acquisition and application specific to menstrual health-related issues. Menstrual health literacy is low among female athletes, their coaches, and practitioners, and few evidence-informed education or implementation strategies exist to improve menstrual health literacy in sport. Moreover, athletes seldom discuss their menstrual cycles or hormonal contraceptive use with their coaches, despite experiencing menstrual symptoms and/or disturbances and perceiving their menstrual cycles/hormonal contraceptive use to affect performance. Barriers to communication about menstrual cycle- and hormonal contraceptive-related topics include a perceived lack of knowledge among athletes, coaches, and practitioners, concerns about how conversations on these issues will affect interpersonal relationships, and a lack of formal and informal discussion forums. Whilst evidence relating to the effects of the menstrual cycle phase and hormonal contraceptive use on training and performance is currently limited, with existing studies often lacking methodological rigour, impactful steps can still be made to support female athletes. This cornerstone review highlights the current state of menstrual health literacy among athletes, coaches, and practitioners, and provides recommendations for improving menstrual health literacy in sport.Item Effects of hypohydration and menstrual phase on pain : a thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, School of Sport, Exercise and Nutrition, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand(Massey University, 2021) Tan, Beverly Wei LinChronic pain is a pervasive health problem and is associated with tremendous societal and economic costs. However, current pain treatments are often ineffective because there are multiple factors that contribute to a person’s experience of pain. Recent research showed that mild hypohydration increases experimental pain sensitivity in men, but whether this also occurs in women has not been examined. The fluctuations in ovarian hormone (i.e., 17ß-oestradiol and progesterone) concentrations throughout the menstrual cycle may influence a woman’s pain sensitivity, as well as hydration levels. Therefore, interactions between hypohydration and the menstrual phase on pain may exist. To test this hypothesis, this thesis investigated the effects of hypohydration (induced by 24 hr of fluid restriction) on ischaemic pain sensitivity in 14 healthy, eumenorrheic women during the early follicular and mid-luteal phases of their menstrual cycle. In addition, the potential efficacy of acute water ingestion as a countermeasure to the negative impact of hypohydration on pain was also examined. Blood and urinary markers of hydration status indicated that 24 hr of fluid restriction successfully induced mild hypohydration. The major finding is that mild hypohydration reduced ischaemic pain tolerance (by 34 ± 46 s; P = .02, ηp 2 = .37) and increased subjective ratings of both pain intensity (by 0.7 ± 0.7 cm; P = .004; ηp 2 = .55) and pain unpleasantness (0.7 ± 0.9 cm; P = .02; ηp 2 = .40), irrespective of menstrual phase. Menstrual phase had no apparent effect on pain sensitivity or on hydration status. Acute water ingestion decreased thirst sensation (by 2.3 ± 0.9 cm; P < .001, ηp 2 = .88) but did not reverse the hyperalgesic effects of hypohydration. The effects of hypohydration on pain sensitivity were not explained by differences in state anxiety levels or mood state. In conclusion, the findings from this thesis extend to women, previous data in men that showed increases in pain sensitivity with mild hypohydration. This thesis also provides strong evidence that the menstrual phase does not influence pain sensitivity, after hydration status was controlled, the influence of potential confounders was minimised, and when menstrual phases were accurately verified. Lastly, these findings underscore the importance of ingesting fluids regularly throughout the day to maintain adequate hydration and avoid dehydration, especially for individuals experiencing pain.Item Human temperature regulation during exercise in the heat : effects of the menstrual cycle and ambient thermal profile : a thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, School of Sport, Exercise and Nutrition, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand(Massey University, 2018) Lei, Tze-HuanBehavioural thermoregulation is the most effective means with which we regulate our body temperature at rest and during exercise. Yet, research into behavioural thermoregulation during exercise is still at an emergent stage, as it has not included females, or investigated different thermal profiles. In particular, limited studies are available to describe the behavioural and physiological differences between dry and humid heat for both sexes. Furthermore, it remains unknown whether ambient humidity or temperature alone contribute to the initiation of the behavioural responses during exercise in the heat. Therefore, the first part of this thesis investigated the effects of endogenous and exogenous female ovarian hormones on behavioural and autonomic responses, in both dry and humid heat environments matched according to the heat stress index, WBGT (Chapter Five and Six). The results from Chapter Five clearly show that behavioural and autonomic responses were less affected by menstrual phase, but were affected by the environmental conditions. In particular, trained women reduced their power output in order to nullify the autonomic strain from a humid heat environment. Chapter Six then extended this observation to (trained) women taking combined hormonal contraception, compared to eumenorrheic women in Chapter Five. The results from Chapter Six indicate that greater autonomic strain was observed in women with hormonal contraception, compared to eumenorrheic women, in both dry and humid heat, whilst the behavioural response was similar between those two groups. Furthermore, the behavioural response was different between dry and humid heat, with power output being lower in the humid heat environment compared to dry heat. The second part of this thesis investigated the effects of ambient temperature per se on the interaction of thermoregulatory, cardiovascular and perceptual responses to exercise (Chapter Seven), as well as assessing different exercise modalities (variable-intensity versus fixed-intensity exercise) and their effects on thermoregulation when the duration and average power output were matched (Chapter Eight). The results from Chapter Seven indicate that thermoregulatory and cardiovascular responses were not affected by ambient temperature but that perception was, when vapour pressure was matched between two different thermal profiles. The results from Chapter Eight indicate that self-pacing (behaviour) did not modulate thermoregulatory strain, when both self-paced and fixed-intensity were matched at the same exercise intensity and duration. In conclusion, this thesis extends the knowledge-base on behavioural thermoregulation in trained women and also provides evidence that behavioural and autonomic thermoregulation is influenced more by vapour pressure than ambient temperature of the environment in men. Furthermore, the findings of this thesis confirm that behavioural thermoregulation is effective in modulating physiological strain only when there is a reduction in metabolic heat production.