First Female Athlete Diagnosed With CTE After Repeated Head Impacts
Australian researchers say Heather Anderson, who died last year, had multiple lesions across her cortex
A former Australian athlete was diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy, marking the first time a female professional athlete has been found to have the degenerative brain disease stemming from repetitive head trauma.
Researchers at the Australian Sports Brain Bank determined Heather Anderson, a professional Australian Rules footballer who died last year, had multiple lesions related to the disease, known as CTE, across her cortex, according to a statement from the Concussion Legacy Foundation. Anderson died in November at age 28.
Australian Rules football is a fast-paced tackling and kicking game. It’s one of the country’s most popular sports. The professional women’s Australian Football League launched in 2017.
Foundation officials said the findings should serve as a warning for the women’s sports world as more female athletes participate in contact sports.
“This case should be seen as a canary in a coal mine that she’s certainly not the only young AFL player with CTE,” said Chris Nowinski, co-founder of the Concussion Legacy Foundation. “It should make us stop and ask: ‘Does this matter to us?,’ which it should, and therefore how do we prevent it? That conversation just has not been prioritized.”
Symptoms of CTE include memory loss, impulse control problems, depression and progressive dementia, according to the Boston University CTE Center. Scientists can only diagnose the progressive degenerative disease after death through brain-tissue analysis. There is no known cure.
The disease is still being studied. Researchers have found CTE in athletes playing contact sports including boxing, American football and hockey, and in military veterans.
A study published in 2017 found 87% of donated brains from former high-school, college, semiprofessional and professional football players showed signs of the disease. Among former National Football League players in the study, 110 of 111 brains showed signs of CTE. Researchers noted that those sampled for the study were people expected to have experienced head trauma, and had on average played for much longer than most recreational players.
Research into the connection between contact sports and CTE has sparked concern in the U.S. in recent years, particularly within American football. The National Football League has changed some rules to limit potential injuries. Some high school football programs are using technology like helmet sensors to help track the hits young players take.
A small number of women have been diagnosed with CTE, but Anderson’s diagnosis is the first among female professional athletes, researchers said in a paper about the diagnosis. Anderson played contact sports for 18 years, beginning at 5 years old. She played both Australian Rules football and rugby, eventually playing professionally in her early 20s. Anderson played for the Adelaide Crows, which won the league’s first Grand Final in 2017. She was known for wearing a soft-shelled pink helmet while she played.
Over the course of her career, she suffered one concussion and four possible concussions that weren’t officially diagnosed, researchers said. Anderson also served in the military for nine years. Researchers said she suffered no known concussions related to her service.
Athletes who begin playing contact sports in their youth and into adulthood face the greatest risk of developing CTE, researchers said. The growth of professional women’s leagues in recent years means more women are playing at a higher level.
The Concussion Legacy Foundation and Boston University in June published guidelines to help sports organizations lower the risk of athletes developing CTE. They include limiting hits to the head during practice and increasing the minimum age to participate in parts of the sports that could lead to repeated head injuries.
“I hope this begins a dialogue with sports-covering bodies on this issue,” Nowinski said. “We can predict here in 2023 that this is going to be the first of many, many cases of high-profile female athletes developing CTE.”