Female Athlete Triad
The female athlete triad is a health condition in which active women experience three inter-related disorders due to unhealthy body weight and eating habits. In the case of the triad, the word active refers to females who display moderate to high intensity levels of performance. The rate of performance must be high in order to counterbalance the decrease in calorie intake. Females who perform at a high intensity are at risk for the triad since they do not take in enough calories to fulfill the amount expended. The three disorders within the female athlete triad are osteoporosis, disordered eating, and menstrual dysfunction. Not all females experience all three of the conditions, however new data has indicated that even having one or two elements of the triad can greatly increase a female’s long term morbidity and mortality rate (6). Adolescent girls and women are the two categories who are mainly affected by the triad. The causation of this disorder is mainly due to the pressure placed on these females to maintain a slim body image in order to enhance their sports performance. The female athlete triad does not only affect elite athletes, it also affects active women and girls participating in physical activities. If females compete at elite levels and do not consume the adequate amounts of calories, vitamins, and/or water, then they will develop the female athlete triad. The three conditions of the female athlete triad are caused by low energy availability, irregular menstrual cycles, and low bone mineral density. Disordered eating can be defined as the imbalance between the amount of energy consumed and the amount of energy expended during exercise. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: Fourth Edition (DSM-IV) detects that the two main types of eating disorders included within the disordered eating category are anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa (3). Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder in which people go for long periods of
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