Related Experiment Videos
Effects of oral contraceptives on peak exercise capacity
Gretchen A Casazza1, Sang-Hoon Suh, Benjamin F Miller
1Exercise Physiology Laboratory, Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA.
Abstract:
We examined the effects of menstrual cycle phase and oral contraceptive (OC) use on peak oxygen consumption (VO(2 peak)). Six moderately active, eumenorrheic women (25.5 +/- 1.5 yr) were studied before and after 4 mo of OC. Subjects were tested during the follicular and luteal phases before OC and the inactive and high-dose phases after OC. Before OC, there were no significant differences between the follicular and luteal phases in any of the variables studied. There were also no differences between the inactive and high-dose phases. Dietary composition, exercise patterns, and peak heart rate, minute ventilation, and respiratory exchange ratio did not change with OC use. However, OC use significantly (P