Female participation in sports is drastically increasing. Today's athletes are competitive and strong. As a result, it is important to look at the health concerns specific to women athletes.
The Female Athlete Triad is what women are at risk for. The triad consists of disordered eating, amenorrhea, and osteoporosis.
The first part of the triad, disordered eating, affects 16% to 72% of women athletes. Disordered eating is not only defined as anorexia nervosa or bulimia. Specific to the triad, the main aspect of disordered eating is that the female athlete's regular diet does not provide sufficient calories to for their sports and training; and, this is not always a conscious restriction of calorie intake. Many times, these athletes have ritualized nutrition habits, compulsive behavior, low intake of food and increaded energy expenditure. Generally it starts as monitoring food consumption, moving to restricting foods from the diet (such as red meats or fats) and then eventually limiting acceptable foods.
Disordered eating can consequently lead to the second aspect of the triad, amenorrhea. Primary amenorrhea is the delayed onset of a menstrual cycle (older than 16 years old). Secondary amenorrhea is lack of menstrual cycle for 6 months or more, having once had normal menstrual function. Recent research theories suggest that caloric deficit results in too little energy to keep up the endocrine reproductive system, and as a result the menstrual cycle stops. It is uncommon for coaches to ask their female athletes about their menstrual cycle, and a lot of female athletes are not worried about the lack of their menstrual cycle because it is convenient.
The third component is osteoporosis. Amenorrhea is highly correlated with osteoporosis, premature bone loss or inadequate bone formation. Consequently low bone mass, micro architectural deterioration, increased skeletal fragility, and increase risk of stress fracture are all risks. It is imperative for female athletes to keep up their bone mass during their teenage years and early 20’s. If high levels of bone mass are not obtained during this window, because women are loosing bone mass when bone should be forming, the athlete is predisposed to premature, irreversible osteoporosis.
PREVENTION:
To prevent female athletes from embarking on this dangerous path, it is important to look for these risk factors:
Chronic dieting
Low self-esteem
Family dysfunction
Perfectionism, and
Lack of nutrition knowledge
The Female Athlete Triad is what women are at risk for. The triad consists of disordered eating, amenorrhea, and osteoporosis.
The first part of the triad, disordered eating, affects 16% to 72% of women athletes. Disordered eating is not only defined as anorexia nervosa or bulimia. Specific to the triad, the main aspect of disordered eating is that the female athlete's regular diet does not provide sufficient calories to for their sports and training; and, this is not always a conscious restriction of calorie intake. Many times, these athletes have ritualized nutrition habits, compulsive behavior, low intake of food and increaded energy expenditure. Generally it starts as monitoring food consumption, moving to restricting foods from the diet (such as red meats or fats) and then eventually limiting acceptable foods.
Disordered eating can consequently lead to the second aspect of the triad, amenorrhea. Primary amenorrhea is the delayed onset of a menstrual cycle (older than 16 years old). Secondary amenorrhea is lack of menstrual cycle for 6 months or more, having once had normal menstrual function. Recent research theories suggest that caloric deficit results in too little energy to keep up the endocrine reproductive system, and as a result the menstrual cycle stops. It is uncommon for coaches to ask their female athletes about their menstrual cycle, and a lot of female athletes are not worried about the lack of their menstrual cycle because it is convenient.
The third component is osteoporosis. Amenorrhea is highly correlated with osteoporosis, premature bone loss or inadequate bone formation. Consequently low bone mass, micro architectural deterioration, increased skeletal fragility, and increase risk of stress fracture are all risks. It is imperative for female athletes to keep up their bone mass during their teenage years and early 20’s. If high levels of bone mass are not obtained during this window, because women are loosing bone mass when bone should be forming, the athlete is predisposed to premature, irreversible osteoporosis.
PREVENTION:
To prevent female athletes from embarking on this dangerous path, it is important to look for these risk factors:
Chronic dieting
Low self-esteem
Family dysfunction
Perfectionism, and
Lack of nutrition knowledge
As a female athlete I have experienced and seen some of these factors. I didn't know that the eating disorders aspect was also just not getting sufficient calories and nutrients in the diet. I feel like I try so hard to eat right but the timing of my practices and weird hunger moods has affected my diet. It really stinks being a woman!
ReplyDeleteI agree completely with Stephanie. This is seen so much at the college level, division 1, 2, or 3. Our practices were always at such odd times, preventing normal eating patterns. Practices were also incredibly frequent, often cutting into sleeping patterns. As college athletes, you train hard almost everyday and sometimes too hard. These factors definitely come into play.
ReplyDeleteWhen I first heard of the Female Athlete Triad, I always thought of individual sports where individual perfectionism, like you mentioned, was stressed--like gymnastics and figure skating. I figured the bulimia and eating disorders came from that, but now that I am a college athlete, I've been around many female athletes from different team sports that have some of these symptoms and it really changed my outlook on these problems. As a future coach, this is going to be something I will have to be observant of. Great information on this post!
ReplyDeletethis is another one of those instances that i am happy to be a male athlete. however, a a future coach and p.e teacher is nice to be educated on such material so i can be prepared if something like this comes down the road. good post.
ReplyDelete