Serum Cortisol Levels in Exercise-Associated Amenorrhea

Excerpt

To the Editor: The recent article by Ding and colleagues (1) contains the statement "a difference in Cortisol levels between amenorrheic and eumenorrheic athletes . . . has not been shown." In fact, such a difference in serum Cortisol levels between amenorrheic and eumenorrheic runners participating in the 1984 U.S. Olympic women's marathon trials has been previously reported by Deuster and colleagues (2). In addition, a study (3) cited by Ding and colleagues included data showing that resting serum Cortisol levels were significantly higher (P < 0.01) in amenorrheic than eumenorrheic runners when findings were analyzed by Student t-test, although