For the first time, the degenerative brain disease C.T.E. has been diagnosed in a female professional athlete, researchers reported.
Heather Anderson, an Australian rules football player who died last year, was found to have had C.T.E., researchers said in a paper published in Acta Neuropathologica.
“As the representation of women in professional contact sports is growing, it seems likely that more C.T.E. cases will be identified in female athletes,” the report said. “Given females’ greater susceptibility to concussion, there is an urgent need to recognize the risks, and to institute strategies and policies to minimize traumatic brain injuries in increasingly popular female contact sports.”
Anderson started playing Australian rules football when she was 5 years old, eventually competing in the top women’s league for the Adelaide Crows. She retired at 23 in 2017 after a shoulder injury. She died by suicide, her family said, at 28. She had one confirmed concussion in her career, and as many as four more suspected by her family but not formally diagnosed.
“It was a surprise, but not a surprise,” her father, Brian, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation program 7.30 of the diagnosis. “And I think now that this report has been published, I’m sort of trying to…
