Triple Threat

Female Athlete Triad: What Every Parent Should Know

By Kelly Burgess

One of the first things Dr. Carol Otis points out about the condition known as "female athlete triad" is that it's probably misnamed. She believes the name implies that it's a condition that only competition-level athletes can suffer, and that's not the case at all.

"People think because their daughter isn't on an athletic team they can't have this disorder," Dr. Otis says. "That's where we may have misnamed the triad, because this can happen to anyone. The condition was just described about eight to 10 years ago, so it's relatively new, which makes it even more important to raise awareness."

To put it very simply, female athlete triad is a condition that is made up of a combination of three disorders: amenorrhea (absence of menstruation), disordered eating (not taking in enough calories) and loss of bone mass. This last part of the triad can only be diagnosed by a doctor, and by the time it's gone this far, the damage to a female's growing body may be irreversible.

The problem with calling it female athlete triad is that, while it does affect athletes, it also includes girls who are obsessed with being thin. They may develop the triad when they take the desire to be thin to the point where they develop bulimia or anorexia, while at the same time, they exercise far too much for their limited caloric intake. This causes the body to try to conserve energy, and the first thing it will do to conserve that energy is stop the menstrual cycle.

Ultimately, this loss of bone mass is something that can't be undone. According to Dr. Amanda Weiss, director of pediatric sports medicine at Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital, by the time a female is 18 or 19 years old, they have already formed 90 percent of their bone mass. If they don't build up their maximum bone mass in that time, they can't make it up.

"There's not really anything we can do to replace bone mass in a young woman, especially one of child-bearing age," says Dr. Weiss. "If you don't put down your optimal bone mass when your young, you may get to age 27 and discover you have osteoporosis."

Want to see more?

• All for the Game: Young Athletes Give More Than Effort for Their Love of Sports
• Healthy Teens: Mission Possible
• Turning Points for Better and Worse: Facing Anorexia, Dishonesty and Separation
• Talk about it!