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I first heard of 'Female Athlete Triad' only last year, and if you haven’t heard about it yet, I’m not surprised - it seems a truly overlooked women's health condition.

As its name suggests, it shows up in women athletes in three ways - menstrual dysfunction, energy deficiency, and … wait for it, osteoporosis. In athletes.

My guest on this episode was equally taken aback when she was diagnosed with this condition, through a DEXA scan which found she had osteopenia, a precursor to osteoporosis. Jasna Hodžić is a writer and a researcher, and an avid rock climber. She was in her mid-twenties at the time, and a picture of strength.

It's amazing to see Jasna in action - it seems quite extraordinary to scale these rock faces that she describes as a puzzle, an intriguing challenge to be figured out.

Female Athlete Triad has now been renamed RED-S, to include male athletes with relative energy deficiency as well, and there’s more to learn about it here. (No surprise that bone health AND menstrual dysfunction are mentioned in the same sentence here - they lead back to one place: estrogen).

Around the time I read Jasna's story, I also heard from listener Catherine Uptmor, who emailed to request an episode on Female Athlete Triad, so all signs pointed to this topic being on the show. I asked Catherine to share her story as well, and she sent in a beautiful voice memo, which you can also hear it on the episode.

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You too can request a topic! Reply to this email with whatever you’ve got in mind, and let’s start a conversation.

What else is going on:

🎙️ Only a couple of days left before registration closes for First Person Health, so if you have a health story and you want to set aside the time and space to properly process it, and bring it to life in audio, sign up for the workshop - I have a couple of spots left for the next cohort. I want to also tell you that the cost of this workshop covers the professional production effort that goes into it, but I don't want it to be a barrier to entry: if that's the case for you, please email me, and we can talk about payment options. This is an opportunity to learn and share your health story, and I'd like it to be accessible to whoever wants to participate.

🎧 The wonderful Spencer Moore had me on her podcast, The Hairy Chin, to talk about pain and my experience with a thunderclap headache a couple of months ago. You should check out Spencer's podcast, which focuses on women's health advocacy. And what's not to love about this gorgeous podcast cover too?

📚 This week I will be pulling together a not-lame gift list for Mother's Day that includes some of my favorite women's health books. Follow along on Instagram for recommendations here.​

Wishing you the best of health,

Golda