In young women archers menarche does not come late, as it does in many other athletes
2 studies · 611 archers measured
The summary today
There is a single piece of data that counts, and a small one. At a Korean sports high school, among 124 athletes from thirteen disciplines, the first period arrives on average at 13.6 years against 12.4 in 345 girls of the same age who do no sport, while the peak in height growth falls at around eleven and a half years in both groups: the delay is therefore not down to slower maturation overall, it opens up between the growth peak and menarche. When the evaluation built on the non-athletes is applied to each girl, the delay shows up in almost every sport, clearly in taekwondo and athletics, but not in the eight archers, and none of the four girls who still had no period shot a bow (they were three gymnasts and one taekwondo athlete). The authors put it down to a sport that does not place a heavy load on the whole body and does not shift the balance between lean and fat mass. Eight girls, though, are too few to say that archery protects: a small but real delay would not have been seen, and neither the training load nor the nutritional status of each girl was recorded. A 2020 questionnaire given to 142 Turkish women archers puts the recalled first period at 13.27 years on average, but with no girls of the same age for comparison, no record of when they started shooting and in a journal with questionable editorial standards, so it cannot say whether there is a delay.
Also phrased as: "first period in young women archers"; "delayed menarche in female athletes"; "archery and the menstrual cycle in girls"; "age at menarche and sport"; "amenorrhoea in young athletes"
In practice
Girls' menstrual cycles are rarely discussed in archery: it is taken for granted that a light sport with no weight control does not have the effects on the cycle known from gymnastics or running.
Evidence
-
2011
For Archers Published later
8 archers aged 17 at a sports high school in Pusan, within a sample of 124 athletes from 13 disciplines with growth data collected from age 7 to 17: with the evaluation based on age at peak height velocity, delayed menarche is evident in most sports, taekwondo and athletics for example, but it is not recognised in the archers. The subgroup's values are not reported in an extractable form.
CONSTRUCTION OF DELAYED MENARCHE EVALUATION IN KOREAN FEMALE ATHLETES · Katsunori Fujii, Kwang-SOO KOO, UN-HYO Baek, YE-JU Hong
-
2011
Context Other sport Published later
124 athletes against 345 non-athlete students from the same area: menarche at 13.6 ± 1.51 years against 12.4 ± 1.12, peak height velocity at 11.7 ± 1.18 against 11.6 ± 1.29, interval between the two 1.9 ± 1.76 years against 0.8 ± 1.32. The differences are significant (p < 0.01) for age at menarche and for the interval, not for the growth peak.
CONSTRUCTION OF DELAYED MENARCHE EVALUATION IN KOREAN FEMALE ATHLETES · Katsunori Fujii, Kwang-SOO KOO, UN-HYO Baek, YE-JU Hong
-
2011
Context Other sport Published later
Among the same 124 athletes there are 4 cases of amenorrhoea, three gymnasts and one taekwondo athlete, none of them archers; 84 girls fall into delayed or slightly delayed menarche, 23 into regular and 13 into early, and almost 80 per cent report period pain from moderate upwards. With 8 archers, the absence of amenorrhoea among them says nothing about risk.
CONSTRUCTION OF DELAYED MENARCHE EVALUATION IN KOREAN FEMALE ATHLETES · Katsunori Fujii, Kwang-SOO KOO, UN-HYO Baek, YE-JU Hong
-
2020
Context Archers Published later
142 women archers at the 2019 Turkish championship, average age 25, with a questionnaire: the first period came on average at 13.27 years, 13.20 in the girls aged 15 to 18, 13.14 between 19 and 25 and 13.41 over 26, with no difference between age groups (F = 0.78). It is recalled rather than recorded, with no girls of the same age for comparison, no information on whether they had started shooting before menarche or with what load, and the journal has questionable editorial standards: under decision D7 it stays as context.
Effect of Menstrual Cycle on Sport Performance in Archers Questionable venue · Pelin Akyol
Status history
- 2011 Reported A single study, on 124 Korean sports high school athletes compared with 345 girls of the same age: menarche comes more than a year later in the athletes, but in the eight archers no delay is seen, and the four cases of amenorrhoea in the sample are three gymnasts and one taekwondo athlete. The delay in the others is not down to slower maturation overall, because the peak in height growth falls at the same moment, and period pain is the rule rather than the exception across the whole group. The archery subgroup, though, is too small for the absence of a delay to say anything firm: reported.
- 2020 Reported A questionnaire given to 142 Turkish women archers, mostly adults, puts the recalled first period at 13.27 years on average, the same in all three age groups. Everything needed to interpret it is missing, though: a group of girls of the same age who do not shoot, the age at which they had taken up archery, the training load; and the study appears in a journal with questionable editorial standards, which in this registry does not decide a status. It stays as context, and the status still rests on the eight Korean archers of 2011: reported.
Related
Related articles
Research lines
Cite
Campagna, M. (2026). In young women archers menarche does not come late, as it does in many other athletes (Version 2). In Evidence Registry. Retrieved 16 October 2026, from https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/health/menarche-young-women-archers
@misc{campagna2026_menarcagiovaniarciere,
author = {Campagna, Matteo},
title = {In young women archers menarche does not come late, as it does in many other athletes},
year = {2026},
howpublished = {Evidence Registry, matteocampagna.com},
url = {https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/health/menarche-young-women-archers},
note = {Version 2; accessed 2026-10-16}
}
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