Matteo Campagna
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Anxiety in female archers does not change during menstruation

1 study · 10 archers measured

There is a single Turkish study, of ten compound archers from a provincial club aged 18 to 30, measured on the third day of menstruation and on a day outside the menstrual period, both times shooting at 50 m. State anxiety was similar under the two conditions, 42.8 against 44.5 on a scale from 20 to 80, with no significant difference, and the mean score per arrow did not change either, 8.79 against 9.04. What did change was grip, back and leg strength, slightly lower during menstruation. The result carries little weight: ten archers are not enough to rule out a small effect, the day outside menstruation is not placed in any specific phase of the cycle, and in the same table anxiety and heart rate report exactly the same test value, a detail that casts doubt on the transcription. The journal, moreover, has questionable editorial standards: the registry reports the study but does not use it to decide the status, which remains not studied.

Also phrased as: "menstruation and competition anxiety"; "menstrual cycle and archery"; "female archers more anxious during their period"; "cycle phase and state anxiety"

In practice

It is often said that a female archer is more on edge during her period and that competition anxiety changes with the phase of the month.

Evidence

  • 2019
    Context Archers Published later

    Venue with questionable editorial standards: this result does not count towards the status. 10 compound archers from a club in Muğla province, aged 18-30, measured on the third day of menstruation and on a day outside the period, shooting at 50 m: state anxiety 42.79 ± 2.18 against 44.49 ± 2.09 on the 20 to 80 scale (Wilcoxon z = -1.68, p = 0.093).

    Investigation factors that effect shooting performance in the menstrual period of female archery athletes Questionable venue · Sevinc Serin, Yakup Akif Afyon

  • 2019
    Context Archers Published later

    In the same archers the mean score per arrow does not change (8.79 ± 0.64 during menstruation against 9.04 ± 0.29, p = 0.285), while right grip strength (28.27 against 30.34 kg), left grip, back and leg strength are slightly lower during menstruation (p = 0.005). Heart rate and anxiety report the same test value in the table, z = -1.68 and p = 0.093.

    Investigation factors that effect shooting performance in the menstrual period of female archery athletes Questionable venue · Sevinc Serin, Yakup Akif Afyon

Status history

  1. 2019 Not studied The first and only study on the question arrives: ten compound archers from a Turkish provincial club, measured on the third day of menstruation and on a day outside the period, with state anxiety unchanged between the two conditions, 42.8 against 44.5 out of 80. Ten participants are not enough to rule out a small effect, and the journal has questionable editorial standards: the registry reports the study but does not use it to decide the status, which remains not studied.

Related

Related articles

Research lines

Cite
APA

Campagna, M. (2026). Anxiety in female archers does not change during menstruation (Version 2). In Evidence Registry. Retrieved 16 October 2026, from https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/mind/menstrual-cycle-anxiety-female-archers

BibTeX
@misc{campagna2026_ciclomestrualeansiaarciere,
  author = {Campagna, Matteo},
  title = {Anxiety in female archers does not change during menstruation},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {Evidence Registry, matteocampagna.com},
  url = {https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/mind/menstrual-cycle-anxiety-female-archers},
  note = {Version 2; accessed 2026-10-16}
}

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