최근 격심한 운동은 시상하부-뇌하수체-생식소 (HPG)축의 교란을 일으켜 여성과 남성의 생식기능에 장애를 유발하는 것으로 알려지고 있다. 격심한 운동을 하는 여성 운동선수의 경우는 과소월경, 무배란, 황체기 단축, 성성숙 지연등에 따른 생식호르몬의 변화가 유발된다. 남성 운동선수의 경우는 과도한 운동, 정신적 장애와 긴장, 군 훈련 등 격심한 운동으로 생식호르몬의 분비에 이상이 생긴다고 보고되고 있으나, 임상적인 증상은 미약한 것으로 보고되고 있다. 본
Recently many studies have reported that total and bioavailable androgens reduced in male and female athletes and that physical exercise reduces the body weight and increases the reproductive abnormalities such as oligomenorrhea, anovulation, inadequate luteal phase, and delayed puberty in women by the inhibition of the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axis . In addition, high mileage endurance 겨nning, psychological stress, and military endurance training in men also reduce the secretion of reproductive hormones. To investigate the efffcts of physical endurance exercise on the secretion of reproductive hormones in men, androgenic hormones from adrenal glands and testis were measured in serum by the conventional radioimmunoassays after long-term (more than3 months), short-term (1 week), and acute (12 hours) physical exercises. Androgenic hormones from adrenal glands and testis such as total testosterone (TT), free testosterone (fT), dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), and androstenedione (A) decreased after thesestrenuous endurance trainings, whereas ACTH, cortisol, and dehydroepiandrosterone sulfetes (DHEAS) increased. Conadotropins (LH and FSH) were not idluenced by the physical exercises. Based upon the present results, we assume that the decrease in adrenal and testicular androgens by physical endurance exercises might be associated with the reproductive abnormalities in athletes by unknown factor(s) in addition to the HPG axis disturbance.