Dr. Kate Ackerman: RED-S, Bone Health & What Female Athletes Need to Know

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Women have always trained hard. The science surrounding how they fuel, recover, build bone, and respond to training has had a lot of catching up to do.

In this episode of The Ready State Podcast, Kelly and Juliet sit down with Dr. Kate Ackerman, a triple-boarded physician, former elite lightweight rower, and co-founder and president of the Women’s Health, Sports & Performance Institute (WHSP), to explore what changes when female physiology becomes part of the research question from the beginning.

Kate traces her work back to her own experience making weight as an athlete, then unpacks the evolution from the Female Athlete Triad to Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (RED-S), including how underfueling can affect hormones, bone, cardiovascular health, injury risk, and performance. She explains why bone health begins much earlier than most people realize, how iron status should be evaluated in athletes, and why RED-S deserves attention in postmenopausal women, too.

They also dig into menopause research, strength training, GLP-1s, and WHSP’s mission to answer the questions women themselves say matter to their health and performance.

What You'll Learn in This EpisodeHow low energy availability and RED-S can affect bone, hormones, cardiovascular health, injury risk, and athletic performance and why RED-S can occur in both men and women.Why adolescence represents such an important window for building bone density, with roughly 90% of peak bone mass accrued by age 18.What athletes, parents, and coaches should understand about iron and ferritin, including why one lab value rarely tells the whole story.Why RED-S can matter after menopause, even when menstrual-cycle changes can no longer serve as a warning sign.How WHSP is approaching unanswered questions around female athletes across the lifespan, from adolescent health and pregnancy to menopause, strength training, hormone therapy, and performance.Key Highlights: (00:00) Intro: Dr. Kate Ackerman & the Future of Female Athlete Health

(04:35) Kate’s journey from collegiate rowing to lightweight competition

(06:04) Making weight, underfueling & Crystal Light cereal

(09:30) Extreme weight-cutting tactics in lightweight rowing

(12:05) When losing your menstrual cycle was a “badge of honor”