An Australian athlete who died last year was diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), marking the first known case in a professional female player.
According to the Concussion Legacy Foundation, researchers from the Australian Sports Brain Bank determined that Australian Rules pro football player Heather Anderson had several lesions that were related to the degenerative brain disease.
"There were multiple CTE lesions as well as abnormalities nearly everywhere I looked in her cortex," Dr. Michael Buckland, director of the Brain Bank, said in a statement. "It was indistinguishable from the dozens of male cases I've seen."
Anderson died in November at age 28. Her death is currently under investigation.
Australian Rules football is a physical contact sport, with roots traceable from early forms of Rugby and Gaelic football. The professional women's Australian Football League launched in 2017.
Officials at the Concussion Legacy Foundation said the findings should serve as a wake-up call to the world of women's 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," Dr. Chris Nowinski, co-founder of the foundation, said. "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."
Scientists can diagnose CTE by analyzing brain tissue only after death, and there is no known cure. According to the Boston University CTE Center, symptoms of the disease include memory loss, impulse-control problems, depression, and progressive dementia.
CTE has been found in athletes who play contact sports including American football, boxing, and hockey, as well as in military veterans.
According to a study published in 2017, 87% of donated brains from former high-school, college, semiprofessional, and professional football players showed signs of CTE. Among the brains of former National Football League players in the study, 110 out of 111 showed signs of the disease.
While a small number of women have been diagnosed with CTE, Anderson is the first diagnosis among professional female athletes.
Anderson played contact sports for 18 years, beginning at 5 years old, and played both Australian Rules football and rugby.
Her mother reportedly insisted she wear a helmet during games due to the risk of concussion, and she was known for wearing a soft-shelled pink helmet while playing.
"She hated watching me get smashed," Anderson told media outlet Mamamia in 2017.
Anderson suffered one concussion and four possible concussions that weren't officially diagnosed over the course of her career. She also served in the military for nine years and suffered no known concussions during her service, researchers said.
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