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Chronic traumatic encephalopathy, also known as CTE, is mostly found in ex-NFL players and most notably, men. Well, that's now changed. Former Australian Rules player Heather Anderson has become the first female athlete diagnosed with the disease after playing just seven games for Adelaide back in 2017. She ultimately retired shortly after and ended up committing suicide at only 28 years of age. Heartbreaking.
The family of Anderson donated her brain to the Australian Sports Brain Bank and this week, the shocking findings were revealed. While it's considered a low stage of CTE, the publisher known as the Springer Medical Journal, expects more diagnoses to be found in the future in women.
Via ESPN:
“She is the first female athlete diagnosed with CTE, but she will not be the last,” the authors of the paper wrote.
The father of Heather Anderson also had a rather surprising reaction to his daughter having CTE:
“Now that this report has been published, I'm sort of trying to think about how it might play out for female sportspeople everywhere,” Brian Anderson told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. “Suicide, it's a tough one, it's a tough way to see your child die, it's tough to see your child die anyway.
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“But suicide causes you to re-examine everything, to look at every interaction.”
It's important to note that Anderson also played rugby throughout her life, which likely contributed to getting CTE. One of the directors of the paper could clearly tell Anderson had CTE when examining her cortex:
“It was indistinguishable from the dozens of male cases I've seen.”
Very concerning.
