Ferrer Eva, Rodas Gil, Casals Gregori, Trilla Antoni, Balagué-Dobon Laura, González Juan R, Ridley Katherine, White Richard, Burden Richard J
Sports Medicine Unit, Hospital Clinic and Sant Joan de Déu, Barcelona, Spain.
Barça Innovation Hub, Health & Wellness Area, Barcelona, Spain.
Front Sports Act Living. 2024 Aug 21;6:1430158. doi: 10.3389/fspor.2024.1430158. eCollection 2024.
Understanding individual ovarian hormone cycles and their relationship with health, performance and injuries is highly important to practitioners supporting female athletes. Venous blood sampling is the current gold standard for measuring the ovarian hormones, but the invasive nature of this method presents a major barrier in sport environments. Saliva analysis may offer an alternative method as it is non-invasive, allowing the sample to be collected "", with relative ease, necessary in applied sport environments.
The aims of this study were: (i) To compare the concentration of progesterone between capillary blood and saliva, (ii) To assess the efficacy of weekly measurements of progesterone for determining if ovulation has occurred in elite eumenorrheic football players, and (iii) To establish a saliva criteria cut-off for establishing ovulation and assessing the sensitivity, specificity and accuracy values of the method.
Twenty-one professional and semi-professional, Spanish league female football players (18.6 ± 1.5 years, 58.1 ± 6.0 kg, 164.0 ± 4.8 cm) with natural menstrual cycles, completed the study. Capillary blood and saliva samples were collected from each participant on twelve occasions each separated by at least 7 days. All samples were collected in the morning, following an overnight fast.
According to luteal phase serum progesterone concentrations, 11 out of 21 (52%) players presented with menstrual irregularities (oligomenorrheic = 6, anovulatory = 4, amenorrhoeic = 1). A significant correlation was observed between plasma and saliva progesterone in the estimated eumenorrheic group ( = 0.80, = <0.001, 95% CI 0.72-0.86). The association between serum and saliva progesterone was weaker in the oligomenorrheic group ( = 0.47, = <0.001, 95% CI 0.27-0.64) and was not present in the anovulatory or amenorrhoeic groups.
Salivary measurements of progesterone are well correlated with capillary blood when taken during eumenorrheic menstrual cycles and presents a viable, non-invasive method of establishing characteristic progesterone fluctuations in applied sport settings. The strength of the association appears to be concentration dependent. A luteal phase saliva progesterone (P4) >50 pg/ml and >1.5× follicular baseline has good sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy to indicate ovulation compared to established criteria for serum progesterone.
了解个体卵巢激素周期及其与健康、运动表现和损伤的关系，对于支持女性运动员的从业者来说非常重要。静脉血采样是目前测量卵巢激素的金标准，但这种方法的侵入性在体育环境中构成了主要障碍。唾液分析可能提供一种替代方法，因为它是非侵入性的，能够相对轻松地采集样本，这在应用体育环境中是必要的。
本研究的目的是：（i）比较毛细血管血和唾液中孕酮的浓度；（ii）评估每周测量孕酮以确定精英月经正常的足球运动员是否发生排卵的有效性；（iii）建立用于确定排卵的唾液标准临界值，并评估该方法的敏感性、特异性和准确性值。
21名具有自然月经周期的西班牙联赛职业和半职业女足运动员（18.6±1.5岁，58.1±6.0千克，164.0±4.8厘米）完成了该研究。从每位参与者身上采集毛细血管血和唾液样本各12次，每次间隔至少7天。所有样本均在禁食过夜后的早晨采集。
根据黄体期血清孕酮浓度，21名运动员中有11名（52%）出现月经不规律（月经过少=6例，无排卵=4例，闭经=1例）。在估计月经正常组中，血浆和唾液孕酮之间存在显著相关性（=0.80，=＜0.001，95%可信区间0.72 - 0.86）。在月经过少组中，血清和唾液孕酮之间的关联较弱（=0.47,=＜0.001，95%可信区间0.27 - 0.64），在无排卵或闭经组中不存在这种关联。
在月经正常的月经周期中进行唾液孕酮测量与毛细血管血测量相关性良好，并且在应用体育环境中提供了一种可行的、非侵入性的方法来确定特征性孕酮波动。这种关联的强度似乎取决于浓度。与既定的血清孕酮标准相比，黄体期唾液孕酮（P4）>50 pg/ml且>卵泡期基线的1.5倍，在指示排卵方面具有良好的敏感性、特异性和准确性。
