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The female athlete triad is a syndrome known since 1992. At that time, the syndrome was defined as a cluster of three clinical conditions: disordered eating, amenorrhea, and osteoporosis. As a consequence of almost three decades of research, the female athlete triad is now seen as an intricate network of relationships among energy availability, menstrual function, and bone mineral density. Energy availability, defined as “dietary energy intake minus exercise energy expenditure”, seems to have a central role in the Triad. A significant amount of studies certifies the fact that low energy availability is the main cause for functional hypothalamic amenorrhea in female athletes. Moreover, there’s prove that low energy availability has an impairing role in bone development. Based on the existing scientific evidence, this article is aimed at establishing the importance of energy availability for the female athlete triad.

KEYWORDS: female athlete, energy availability, interrelationships, amenorrhea, bone mineral density.