Swimming 6 h/day from 11 days of age led to a significant delay of the onset of puberty of female rats compared with the sedentary group. Rats who were in contact with water but without the energy expenditure due to exercise (paddlers) had their vaginal opening in a middle point between control and exercising rats. Vaginal opening occurred at different ages but at a same body weight. Exercise and stress led to a marked decrease of the body weights between 19 and 40 days of age. Serum luteinizing hormone and follicle-stimulating hormone were increased with the exercise program at 30 days of age, whereas no significant differences between groups in serum gonadotropins were observed at 50 days of age. Only the anterior pituitary luteinizing hormone content was increased by exercise in adult rats. Total ovarian proteins were significantly reduced by stress and to a greater degree by exercise. Ovarian inhibin activity is not modified by exercise at 30 days of age, whereas it increased significantly in the exercising group at 50 days of age and to a lesser degree in paddlers. It is therefore suggested that the onset of puberty in rats is dependent on a critical weight and that exercise and stress can delay the onset of puberty. This delay could be explained by a deficiency of hormonal maturational process while exercising until sexual maturity alters the inhibin activity, which suggests that inhibin could play a major role for the normal reproductive function and this could possibly explain the menstrual disturbances in the female athlete.