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Editorial
REDs alert: male athletes be wary and scientists take action!
  1. AC Hackney1,
  2. Anna K Melin2,
  3. Kathryn E Ackerman3,
  4. Monica Klungland Torstveit4,
  5. Louise M Burke5,
  6. Margo L Mountjoy6
  1. 1 Exercise & Sport Science, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA
  2. 2 Department of Sport Science, Linnaeus University, Kalmar/Växjö, Sweden
  3. 3 Wu Tsai Female Athlete Program, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
  4. 4 Faculty of Health and Sport, Department of Sport Science and Physical Education, University of Agder, Kristiansand, Norway
  5. 5 Mary MacKillop Institute for Health Research, Australian Catholic University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
  6. 6 Family Medicine, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
  1. Correspondence to AC Hackney, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA; ach{at}email.unc.edu

https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2023-106719

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    The current state of affairs: sex discrepancy in REDs

    Sports medicine and sport science research has been dominated by studies examining male athletes—with one notable exception: the field of Relative Energy Deficiency in Sports (REDs). This anomaly has occurred due to the accumulation of scientific publications studying the female athlete triad (expanded to REDs beginning in 2014), along with increased interest in the role of the menstrual cycle on training and performance.1 This paradox of more female than male research on REDs is slowly changing but still persists. For example, since the 2018 International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) consensus statement update on REDs, 178 studies pertaining to low energy availability (LEA) or REDs have been published, and of the nearly 24 000 participants involved in these studies, only ~20% were male.2 Since the sports medicine and science community has lagged on this issue, clinician knowledge and attention to male athletes suffering from problematic LEA (see box 1) and REDs, remain significant gaps in athlete health and well-being.

    Box 1

    Problematic low energy availability (LEA) working definition2

    Problematic LEA is exposure to LEA that is associated with greater and potentially persistent disruption of various body systems, often presenting with signs and/or symptoms, and represents a maladaptive response. The characteristics of problematic LEA exposure (eg, …

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    Footnotes

    • Twitter @AC_Hackney, @AnnaMelin4, @DrKateAckerman, @LouiseMBurke, @margo.mountjoy

    • Contributors ACH and MLM conceived the editorial. ACH developed the initial manuscript draft, while AKM, KEA, MKT, LMB and MLM conducted revisions. The final version was approved by all authors.

    • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.