An unwanted sports world first: Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), the degenerative brain disease that has been increasingly diagnosed in male athletes, has for the first time been diagnosed in a female professional athlete. Scientists say Heather Anderson, who played Australian Rules football before she died by suicide last year at age 28, had CTE, which can only be diagnosed after death. A co-author of the study on Anderson tells the BBC that mental health issues including “depression, anxiety, irritability, impulsivity, drug and alcohol use, suicidal thoughts,” and suicide itself are “common” in people who suffer from CTE, which is thought to be caused by repeated blows to the head. Anderson, who also played rugby, suffered several injuries during her career, including at least one concussion. She retired in 2017.
The CTE diagnosis “was a surprise, but not a surprise,” Anderson’s father tells the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Her family donated her brain for research, and he says he’s now “sort of trying to think about how it might play out for female sportspeople everywhere.” The authors of the study have some idea: “She is the first female athlete diagnosed with CTE, but she will not be the last,” they write in the research paper on Anderson, per ESPN. One of the co-authors says more study is needed on female athletes in contact sports: “I think this is really the tip of the iceberg and it’s a real red flag that now women are participating [in contact sport] just as men are, that we are going to start seeing more and more CTE cases in women.” (Read more CTE stories.)
First Female Athlete Diagnosed With CTE
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