Motives for the Participation of Female Athletes in “Masculine” Sports and its Relation with Menstrual Disorder

Background. There has been a continuous increase in the participation of female athletes in “masculine” sports competitions and this is in line with the amplifying debate of whether this activity is appropriate for women in Indonesia. Objectives. This study aims to determine women's athletic motives for participating in "masculine" sports and their relationship with the incidence of dysmenorrhea. Methods. This research is a quantitative study with a crosssectional approach. The sample of this research is 137 female athletes by purposive sampling. The questionnaire was distributed to obtain data on extrinsic and intrinsic motives as well as the incidence of dysmenorrhea. The analysis used multinomial regression. Results. The results showed that there was an influence between the athlete's motivation and the incidence of moderate dysmenorrhea (p=0.024; RRR=8.5), there was a relationship between athlete's motivation and the incidence of severe dysmenorrhea (p=0.024; RRR=21.5), besides there was an influence between early menarche and the incidence of moderate dysmenorrhea (p=0.005; RRR=0.3) and there was an effect of early menarche with the incidence of severe dysmenorrhea levels (p=0.022; RRR=0.02). Conclusions. The extrinsic motivation variable is the most influential for the occurrence of dysmenorrhea, so it is necessary to increase the intrinsic motivation of athletes both by themselves and by the coach.