The female puberty process involves many anatomic-physiological phenomena from which menarche is the indicator of sexual maturity. Mean age of menarche is around 12 years. Girl athletes may reach menarche later, and depending on the stress caused by exercise, it may result in hypothalamic amenorrhea. The leptin hormone, besides presenting relation with obesity, has also a relationship with the reproductive system. More recent studies with humans demonstrate important relationships between plasma leptin concentrations and the female puberty process. This study had the aim to verify leptin influence in the female puberty process concerned with exercise from the physiological point of view, through a bibliographic review research. The results of the presented research demonstrate that increase of blood leptin was reported as having a proportionally reverse correlation with menarche age. Moreover, it was verified that leptin has an inverse correlation with physical exercise; low concentrations of plasma leptin are directly linked to deregulation of the reproductive system in women athletes. As a conclusion, leptin is related with the female reproductive system, a fact which becomes evident during the puberty process. In girl and women athletes though, the leptin concentrations found were lower than those found for non-athletes, demonstrating hence the adipose tissue/leptin/reproductive system/exercise relationship.
Puberty; leptin; exercise
