Menstrual cycle patterns in contemporary dance students and their perceptions of how it affects performance / Stephanie Gonzalez (2017)

This study is investigating menstrual cycle patterns in contemporary dance students and their perceptions of how the menstrual cycle affects performance. There is no current research into contemporary dance students regarding the menstrual cycle. However, there is research on ballet dancers and other athletes.
Participants: This study was conducted on 81 students from different conservatoires and universities within the UK. Surveys and interviews were used to assess the two aspects being investigated.

Results: Part one observed the menstrual cycle patterns of contemporary dance students. The results established that in the past 12 months 63% of students had a regular period, 27% had irregular periods and 10% had absent periods. In addition, data was gathered from beyond the past 12 months and found that 50% had regular periods, 35% had irregular periods and 15% had absent periods. Part two of the study focused on perceptions of how the menstrual cycle affected performance. Ten variables were observed for each phase of the menstrual cycle (menstruation, follicular stage, luteal stage). First, they were correlated against change and effect. Most variables had significant relationships throughout the three phases. Following this, 10 one-way repeated measures ANOVA’s were conducted to assess differences between the three phases, they all established statistically significant differences between the three phases. In addition, interviews were conducted to provide more details from the answers obtained with the survey. The main themes from the interview were physical symptoms, mood/mental symptoms, factors with the greatest impact, and phase with the greatest impact.

Conclusion: The results had some similarities and differences when comparing them to other studies. Previous studies found that the physical variables were not affected during the different stages of the menstrual cycle. The mood/mental symptoms established similar results to previous studies. The findings from the interviews provided more detail into why the participants were experiencing these symptoms, and provided further knowledge that could be used for future studies.