+1Hello fellow female runners!
I had hormonal coil installed about 6 weeks ago and since then Im dragging me feet and my training effect is out of the window. Did extremely poorly on my half marathon race this weekend. I have started to wonder whether the coil might be impacting my performance. Does anyone have any experience of anything similar? Or anyone aware of research done on the topic?
thank you!
+29Hi
there definitely can be some impact. I don't have an experience with running while on hormonal contraceptives but in general, but I can definitely confirm that my performance varies a lot during the monthly cycle - it's quite bad at the end of the luteal phase (last few days before the start of another period) and the best early in the cycle.
I saw this article at Strava Stories, https://stories.strava.com/articles/how-to-optimize-endurance-training-for-female-athletes and thought it described the principles really well. It doesn't mention the effects of contraceptives though. But it perhaps depends on the type you're using - which phase of the cycle it simulates.
I hope someone will have more detailed information as this topic is really interesting!
+1Thank you
Yes if you are on a normal natural cycle, the different phases of the cycle can really have a big impact on your performance/ energy to train - this has also been my experience and as you say is somewhat backed by science. Now I unffortunately had to go on hormonal contraception and im quite clueless in terms of what to expect and whether my poor performance could be at least partly due to my body trying to cope with the hormones im getting… this topic indeed is super interesting and annoying that there is so little data!
+26What I found in https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09687637.2023.2261614#d1e306 in chapter “5. Hormonal contraception use by athletes” is a slightly performance enhancing effect, first because the abscence of the menstruation is advantageous for constant training and second because even estrogen can have a anabolic effect on muscles. The study claims furthermore that usage of HC is common in female elite athletes. I don’t know though if all that applies to the usual oral contraceptiva only but on a coil too. What is important in any case is what hormones the HC consists of as there are some outside without estrogen and then the anabolic effect wouldn’t be there.
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