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The pressure to be thin, to have the perfect body, to push oneself beyond the limits is perhaps most strongly felt by female athletes. Their desire to achieve is combined with real and perceived signals from coaches, parents and peers that their success - even their acceptance and participation - in sports hinges on meeting unrealistic standards for body shape, weight, training regimens and performance. The result is often a series of three serious health concerns that make up the female athlete triad. The triad consists of disordered eating, which afflicts more than 5 million Americans according to the National Institute of Mental health; amenorrhea, a disruption of monthly menstrual cycles resulting in oestrogen deficiency caused by excessive exercise and other factors including disordered eating habits; and osteoporosis or loss of bone mass, which has been linked to oestrogen deficiency and may lead to stress fractures. These three conditions may, and often do, appear separately in many active women, but whether experienced singly or as part of the triad, the conditions are a real threat to women athletes.Carol Otis informs and counsels readers who are susceptible to one or more of these complaints, and offers guidelines and strategiesm