Anoushka Parikh the former international doubles shutter had dreamt of scaling lofty heights. She had come to Gopichand academy in Hyderabad from Ahmedabad in 2016.
The change is routine was immense. From 3-4 hours it went up to 8 hours daily. With food change, her cycle changed. She got periods for one day. She started gaining weight. It affects movements. Everyone would say lose weight. But how??
Imagine the dilemma of the young player away from her house, parents, in a new environment. A nutritionally balanced diet, 8 hours of training & yet the weight increased! In the times of slim, trim athletes it is a no no.
Shivani Naik has written another article about the trauma of a budding athlete, who had to leave the sport. The hardships on court have a toll on the body of the athlete.
Angelica Hirshberg, writing for for the national library of medicine in the National center for Biotechnology Information, highlighted the prevalence of the more severe PCOS (polycystic Ovary Syndrome ) in the topmost tier of athletes.
Researcher C. Fruhling said absence of periods is highly reported in athletic populations from 3.4 to 66% of female athletes compared to 2-5% in the general population.
For athletes weakness, fatigue & sleepiness can amplify their troubles says Mumbai based gynaecologist Esha Chainani. Purely physical problem that occurs a few days a month as opposed to a chronic condition can affect the overall quality of life.
Anoushka when diagnosed said ,’I am like, is my brain stupid? ‘She chuckles remembering the nightmare. The problem dealing with PCOD without knowing how to brought mental & emotional stress. My focus also went from my game to my weight’.
After finishing her online degree in Psychology from the university of Massachusetts, she is not looking back. ‘I was like, the thing that I loved doing, did this to me. Of course it felt good to lose weight later. I felt a lot better. Lot in health changed. But I keep thinking, how did we not see this or deal with it then?’
She has words of advice for the athletes she reckons may be suffering silently & quitting at 20-21. ‘In these cases it is an endocrinologist that you need to consult. And not always a gynec. We are dealing with hormones, so we need to be seeing an endocrinologist’
Hope to see more in the success of a Steffi Graf, Saina or Saniya, Sindhu or Mitali than meets the eye. While lifting the cup, the tears they shed are for toiling for hours & all that they sacrificed. The struggles are more than what meets our eye.
Asian Entertainment 