The Response of Sexual and Stress Hormones of Male Pro-Cyclists   During Continuous Intense Competition

B. Fernández-Garcia; A. Lucía; J. Hoyos; J. L. Chicharro; M. Rodriguez-Alonso; F. Bandrés; N. Terrados

doi:10.1055/s-2002-35532

International Journal of Sports Medicine, Table of Contents

Int J Sports Med 2002; 23(8): 555-560
DOI: 10.1055/s-2002-35532

Physiology & Biochemistry

The Response of Sexual and Stress Hormones of Male Pro-Cyclists During Continuous Intense Competition

B. Fernández-Garcia¹ , A. Lucía⁴ , J. Hoyos³ , J. L. Chicharro² , M. Rodriguez-Alonso^1, ⁶ , F. Bandrés⁵ , N. Terrados^1, ^6, ⁷

¹Fundación Deportiva Municipal de Avilés, Asturias, Spain
²Departamento de Enfermería, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain
³Agrupación Deportiva Banesto pro-cycling team
⁴Departamento de Ciencias Morfológicas y Fisiología, Universidad Europea de Madrid, Spain
⁵Departamento de Toxicología y Legislación Sanitaria, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain
⁶G. D. ONCE-Deutsche Bank pro-cycling team
⁷Department of Functional Biology, University of Oviedo, Spain

Abstract

The aim of this study was to compare hormonal changes in plasma total testosterone (T), cortisol (C), luteinizing hormone (LH), follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and prolactin (P) in two world-class teams, both consisting of 9 top male pro-cyclists, during a real sports situation (the 1998 “Vuelta a España”, a 3-week multi-stage international cycling competition). Venous blood samples were taken the day before the race (S0), after 1 week (S1), after 2 weeks (S2) and at the end of the race (S3). The S0 T level was significantly lower in the team with more racing days in the previous month. There was a significant basal T decrease (p < 0.05) during the race in comparison with the initial value, in spite of the difference in S0 T level between teams. However, there was no difference between teams in the mean decrease in T level. C decreased significantly between S0 and S1 and between S1 and S2, but not between S2 and S3. There were no differences in P concentration between teams or throughout the study, except for a significant increase between S2 and S3. There were no initial differences in LH nor FSH concentration between the teams, nor at any of the study follow-up times. We conclude that in professional top-level athletes S0 T values depend on the number of competition days of the previous month. We observed a similar decrease in the T levels in both teams, independent of the absolute S0 values. In both teams C decreased during long-lasting cycling competition.

Key words

Cycling - endurance exercise - long-term exercise - testosterone - cortisol - prolactin - LH - FSH

Full Text

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