Is There A Male Athlete Triad?

NEW RESEARCH SHOWS THAT MEN CAN SUFFER THE DEVASTATING CONSEQUENCES OF A MALE VERSION OF THE FEMALE ATHLETE TRIAD

- Peta Bee

IN RECENT weeks, we have focused heavily in these pages on issues surrounding the Female Athlete Triad, or Relative Energy

Deficiency in Sport (RED-S). This complex interplay of menstrual dysfunction, low energy availability (with or without an eating disorder), and decreased bone mineral density is alarmingly common within sport. Energy deficiency – a result of imbalances between the amount of energy consumed and the amount of energy expended during training – is the main underlying cause of the syndrome. But is there a male equivalent of the Triad?

Drawing parallels

This question was the focus of a paper published last year in the journal Sports Medicine in which Dr Adam Tenforde, assistant professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Harvard Medical School and Sports Medicine Physician at the Spaulding National Running Centre, and his colleagues proposed that a similar condition affects male athletes. Their early research suggests “that a subset of male athletes may experience adverse health issues that parallel those associated with the Triad” Tenforde said, experiencing changing levels of hormones, coupled with undereating and resulting injuries. While not yet formally recognised as a medical syndrome, the Male Athlete Triad is to be a subject discussed by an expert panel at the American College of Sports Medicine annual conference in 2018. “It’s likely the term ‘male athlete triad’ will be used,” says Dr Mary Jane De Souza, a professor of kinesiology and physiology at the Pennsylvania State University in University Park and a leading researcher on the subject who will be on the ACSM panel.

How it affects men