PREGNANCY IN ENDURANCE ATHLETES

The purpose of the present study was to examine pregnancy and delivery among Finnish endurance athletes al the national top level. A questio nnaire concerning first pregnancy was sent to 30 Finnish endurance ath letes who had been at national top level in cross-country skiing, runn ing, speed-skating or orienteering. Data on labour were collected retr ospectively through a questionnaire and from the diaries in the hospit al concerned. The next primipara in the diaries formed a member of the control group. Twenty-three athletes (77%) had regular menstrual cycl es, seven (23%) had irregularities, and four of them had received horm onal treatment fur this. Seven athletes (23%) had experienced spontane ous abortion during the first trimester in previous pregnancy. Sixteen (53%) did not notice any change in their exercise performance, three (10%) subjectively felt themselves to be in a better physical conditio n, and seven (23%) felt themselves to be in a worse condition than bef ore the pregnancy. Four did not respond on the question. After deliver y, IS athletes continued to compete, the median interval being 8.2 mon ths (range 2-24 months). Two of them (11%) achieved a better condition than before the pregnancy, 11 (61%) reached the same level and five ( 28%) did not achieve the same performance level. There were no signifi cant differences in labour parameters between the athletes and control s. Endurance training had no harmful side-effects on the pregnancies o r deliveries of the athletes. The effect of pregnancy on exercise perf ormance is individual.