amenorrhea affecting millions of healthy women

Female Athletes Share Quadruple Health Threats

 

From sciencedaily

A study led by sports medicine researcher Anne Hoch, D.O., at The Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee has revealed that young female professional dancers face the same health risks as young female athletes when they don't eat enough to offset the energy they spend, and stop menstruating as a consequence.

"These two components of the female athlete tetrad put them at higher risk for the other two; the cardiovascular and bone density deficits of much older, postmenopausal women,"

 

High-dose Folic Acid Supplements Improved Vascular Function in Amenorrheic Runners

In a related study, presented earlier at the American Society of Sports Medicine meeting in Tampa, Fla., researchers at The Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee found that four to six weeks of high-dose folic acid supplementation could improve vascular function in young female runners who were amenorrheic (not menstruating).

 

This is the first study to use folic acid supplementation to improve vascular function in young runners, and is important because folic acid may not only decrease cardiovascular risks but also improve athletic performance for these women. The research was conducted at Froedtert Hospital.

 

"Previous studies have shown that amenorrheic women runners have decreased dilation in the main (brachial) artery of the arm in response to blood flow," says lead author Stacy Lynch, M.D., a women's sports medicine fellow at the College. "Athletic amenorrhea has a hormonal profile similar to menopause, when the earliest sign of cardiovascular disease is reduced vascular dilation, which can limit oxygen uptake and affect performance."

 

While the benefits for women of an active lifestyle, including running, are profound and well-known, there are nearly three million girls in high school sports and approximately 23 million women who run at least six times a week. The prevalence of athletic-associated amenorrhea among these runners is now estimated at 44 percent.