The IOC consensus statement: beyond the Female Athlete Triad-Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (RED-S)

 

International Olympic Committee (IOC) remains the major goal of protecting athletes. The IOC gathered an expert panel to provide these current updates to the 2005 IOC Consensus Statement on the Female Athlete Triad. The triad had previously been described as the combination of disordered eating (DE) and irregular menstrual cycles which potentially lead to decreases in endogenous estrogen and other hormones which may result in low bone mineral density. The current IOC working group presented an extensive, more comprehensive designation reclassified as “Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport” (RED-S). This syndrome denotes impaired physiological ability and goes beyond the triad of Energy Availability (EA), menstrual function and bone health. RED-S is more of a pattern resulting from relative energy deficiency that affects many aspects of bodily function including metabolic rate, menstrual function, bone health, immunity, protein synthesis as well as cardiovascular and psychological wellbeing. Furthermore, it is marked that comparative energy deficiency also afflicts men.

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