The effect of oral contraceptive use on salivary testosterone concentrations and athlete performance during international field hockey matches. Issue 5 (May 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Crewther, Blair T.; Hamilton, David; Kilduff, Liam P.; Drawer, Scott; Cook, Christian J.
• Is Part Of: Journal of science and medicine in sport. Volume 21:Issue 5(2018)
• Page Start: 453
• Page End: 456
• Publication Date: 2018-05
• Subjects: Androgen -- Adrenal -- Neuroendocrine -- Sport -- Adaptive; Sports sciences -- Periodicals; Sports medicine -- Periodicals; Exercise -- Physiological aspects -- Periodicals; Sports -- physiology -- Periodicals; Sports Medicine -- Periodicals; Sportgeneeskunde; 617.102705
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jsams.2017.09.017
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1440-2440

Abstract

Abstract: Objectives: To investigate the effect of oral contraceptive (OC) use on salivary testosterone (sal-T) concentrations and performance-related statistics in international field hockey matches. Design: A cohort observational study with repeated measures. Methods: Twenty-three elite female athletes were monitored across four international field hockey matches over a nine-day period. Salivary T was assessed 45 min before each match and several match performance statistics were collated; load (i.e. ratings of perceived exertion × playing time), video-derived positive actions (PA) and negative actions (NA), plus coach and player ratings of performance. The sal-T and match performance profiles of OC (n = 7) and Non-OC (n = 16) players were compared and predictive relationships tested. Results: Pre-match sal-T concentrations were 35% higher in the Non-OC than the OC group (p = 0.001), representing a large effect size (ES) difference of 0.96. The OC and Non-OC groups did not differ on any performance statistic (p ≥ 0.348) with ES differences from −0.22 to 0.11. Salivary T was positively related to the number of PA during match play (p = 0.017). Additional linkage between sal-T and NA emerged, but with opposing slopes (p = 0.008) in the OC (B = −1.783, p = 0.030) and Non-OC (B = 0.692, p = 0.127) groups. Conclusions: OC usage by elite women athletes was accompanied by lower sal-T concentrations, but the performance outputs of the OC and Non-OC groups were similar. This suggests that the T differences had no impact on match performance. On an individual (population-averaged) level, sal-T was associated with PA and NA during these matches, though the response curves predicting NA differed for OC and Non-OC athletes.