The Female Athletic Triad

“Skylarking” is an old term for traveling, especially off the beaten path. Our clinic's focus is to give clients the best information to ensure safe sport and activities. Many injuries are preventable through training, practice and other precautions. Our clients include business travelers, sports teams, and individual athletes.

Women Athletes

As in any busy medical clinic at least half of our clients are women. It should be emphasized that there are more similarities than differences between men and women and this should be the primary perspective used when giving advice on preventative medicine and reviewing injuries. Specific unique problems do occur in women athletes and the purposes of this article are to specifically emphasize this. Issues like contraception, pregnancy, safety and access health care may not be available for women athletes in all clinics and this is especially so when traveling.

The Female Athlete Triad

What is the female athlete triad?

This is the observed association-linking women who are highly physically active with abnormal menstruation, which tends to be followed by the onset of osteoporosis.

The triad is made up of:

•  Disorder eating. This can range form disordered eating patterns for people with busy lifestyles, to severe eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia nervosa.

•  Amenorrhea is defined as the loss of normal periods. Women with abnormal periods may not be producing enough estrogen for normal health. It has also recently been recognized that even women with regular periods may have borderline estrogen levels.

•  Osteoporosis is when bones do not have enough calcium and are more likely to become weak and break easily.

How does this triad start?

Female athletes who exercise intensively are under physical and metabolic stress that could lead to changes in the menstrual cycle.

These women with disordered eating habits or loss of body weight are especially at risk of developing the triad.

One possible explanation is that athletic women may have less body fat than those women that have normal production and regulation of estrogen.

Estrogen is needed to maintain bone strength in women. Low levels of estrogen lead to osteoporosis. In many girls a lack of periods when they are growing may mean that he bones aren't able to mature, as they should. This loss of growth can potentially lead to osteoporosis that will become more apparent and irreversible, as the female gets older. Women in specific sports are more at risk of the athletic triad and they include:

•  Runners or too much running (especially high performance running)

What are the after effects of female athlete triad?

•  Osteoporosis will lead to fractures while competing and even more sever fractures that can be crippling.

•  Disordered eating may cause anemia, dehydration, electrolyte imbalance and even irregular heart beats. Anorexia may also lead to death.

•  Performance may also be adversely affected. Ironically this is the least important of the reasons to avoid the athletic triad but often the one that people thing the most about.

Disordered eating, over training and osteoporosis will always cause a decrease in training, performance and the enjoyment of the quality of life.

Some women think that having no period is a great benefit, but this is simply a clear sign that all is not normal. Irregular periods may also cause difficulty when one wants to become pregnant.

What should women athletes look for?

Any athlete that thinks she may be at risk for any part of the athletic triad; irregular periods, osteoporosis, or disordered eating should talk with her physician. There are also medical causes of amenorrhea (such as low thyroid) so your doctor may screen for other preventable diseases that can affect you.

Preventative measures:

•  Maintaining a normal weight.

Having a weight that is healthy for your age and size is essential.

•  Correcting eating disorders.

We recommend that everyone eat close to the Canada Food Guide. Although traditionally made for a North American Style Menu many very good equivalent diets can be made using a variety of ethnic foods, foods for people with dietary restrictions, (diabetics and food allergist) and philosophical diet restrictions can be accommodated such as (religious restrictions, lacto-vegetarianism) so that is always possible to eat healthy. The main goals of a balanced diet are to ensure enough calories, proteins and essential nutrients (vitamins and cofactors). This is a topic that has always been controversial in regards to what is best. In general we should avoid all fad diets and each person's requirements should be considered. Most supplements are unnecessary and are not proven to be beneficial both for basic nutrition and for improving athletic performance.

Skylark Medical Clinic

264 Tache Avenue

Winnipeg, MB R2H 1Z9

Ph: 453-9107 Fax: 453-9115