MARY Slaney scored not only a personal victory last week but one for the growing numbers of aging female athletes. Slaney ruling is
eye-opener for all womenSlaney won her appeal with USA Track and Field over suspected use of performance-enhancing drugs. The most prominent and enduring U.S. women's distance runner still must have her suspension by the IAAF, track's international governing body, overturned before she can compete again, a ruling not expected to be made until late November.
Slaney was suspended in May by the IAAF and then in June by USATF, right before the U.S. championships. The 39-year-old Olympian showed an excessive testosterone ratio during random drug testing at the U.S Olympic trials last year.
The drug tests that were used measure elevated levels of testosterone against epitestosterone, the latter of which occurs naturally in the body. The T-E ratio, as it is called, normally is 1-to-1.
If a urine sample shows a ratio of 6-to-1 or higher, more tests are given, which can lead to an eventual ban from competition. In Slaney's case, the USATF and IAAF rulings were based on the analysis of a chemist, not a gynecologist or endocrinologist.
THEREIN lies the problem. Women's athletics are still in an infancy stages where there have not been major studies done on the affects of exercise and sport on the female body.
It took Nike, Slaney's sponsor, to provide the resources for the medical documentation that shows how the female hormonal system operates and how results of the T-E test can be affected simply by menstrual cycles and birth-control pills.
While I've never been a fan of Nike founder and chairman Phil Knight, his legal resources paved the way for Slaney to clear her name. You think that the president-elect of the American Society of Endocrinologists showed up at Slaney's hearing by accident?
Obviously Knight's motives weren't purely altruistic but he made a statement that speaks to all female athletes and anyone who knows one: "What happened to Mary could happen to any woman."
One doesn't have to be an elite athlete to have an endocrine problem. It can happen to any of us who are, or have been, active.
What's sad -- and scary -- is we don't know it's happening. So many times, we are told that the fatigue and weight gain are symptoms of us aging, of bodies moving toward menopause, even PMS.
It becomes a vicious cycle. Weight gain leads to fatigue. Fatigue to lethargy and depression. Less exercise equals more weight gain.
There becomes a marathon of reasons (excuses) not to exercise today. And the next day. And the next.
Joints are sore. That infection won't go away. You just don't feel like doing anything.
A number of us have a lifelong struggle with the scale. But 20, 30 even 40 pounds in less than a year?
It happens. Trust me.
OK. So maybe the USATF won't be coming to your door, demanding your running shoes and banning you from next month's McGruff Fun Run.
Maybe the IAAF won't ask that you take a drug test. Maybe you should be the one asking to take a thyroid or pituitary test.
Women, particularly those in their late 20s through early 40s, are the most susceptible to hypothyroidism. It's very common in everyday athletes where the thyroid malfunctions, slows one's metabolism and leads to a hormonal imbalance that sets off an unhealthy chain reaction.
When Slaney next competes, regardless of where she finishes, it will be a victory for her and older female athletes. The awareness, and treatment, of an endocrine disorder could help many of us get back into the race.
Cindy Luis is a Star-Bulletin sportswriter.
Her column appears weekly.