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Updated: Aug 3, 2025

Skeletal Muscle Gender Dimorphism from Proteomics
Published on: December 14, 2011
Current evidence shows no influence of women's menstrual cycle phase on acute strength performance or adaptations to
Lauren M Colenso-Semple1, Alysha C D'Souza1, Kirsty J Elliott-Sale2
1Department of Kinesiology, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada.
Introduction:
The bias towards excluding women from exercise science research is often due to the assumption that cyclical fluctuations in reproductive hormones influence resistance exercise performance and exercise-induced adaptations.
Methods:
Hence, the purpose of this umbrella review was to examine and critically evaluate the evidence from meta-analyses and systematic reviews on the influence of menstrual cycle phase on acute performance and chronic adaptations to resistance exercise training (RET).
Results:
We observed highly variable findings among the published reviews on the ostensible effects of female sex hormones on relevant RET-induced outcomes, including strength, exercise performance, and hypertrophy.
Discussion:
We highlight the importance of comprehensive menstrual cycle verification methods, as we noted a pattern of poor and inconsistent methodological practices in the literature. In our opinion, it is premature to conclude that short-term fluctuations in reproductive hormones appreciably influence acute exercise performance or longer-term strength or hypertrophic adaptations to RET.
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