Caring for Female Wrestler: What Her Coach Needs to Know

ABSTRACT.

Women's wrestling has specificities in its recent history, development, and the treatment of female wrestlers. First, women's wrestling has been an Olympic Sport since 2004; this results in a limited number of medical scientific publications. Second, women's wrestling is a weight class sport, which includes difficulties in managing the weight and risk of amenorrhea and athlete triad. Third, women's wrestling is a combination of tactical, technical, and strength training; it involves an imbalance between the force of the abdominal muscles and the pelvic floor, which increases the risk of pelvic floor dysfunction. The author conducted a study on French elite female wrestlers to approach the reality of the health issues that female wrestlers face. In this study, 7 female wrestlers filled out an anonymous survey. Results showed that 5 women reported premenstrual syndrome, 3 reported amenorrhea, 3 reported pelvic floor dysfunction, 2 reported disturbances of cycles, and 1 reported stress fracture. Bone mass density of the amenorrheic female wrestlers was not decreased per dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry. Caring for the female wrestlers concerns several individuals including the coach, the trainer, the sport physician, the gynecologist, the sport dietitian, and the sport physiologist, in consideration of the female wrestler, her need of training, her level of performance, and her health status.

Keywords::

• amenorrhea
• athlete triad
• body composition
• cycle disturbance
• female wrestler
• pelvic floor
• strength training
• stress fracture
• weight management
• women's wrestling