Cat Ferguson struggles with RED-S syndrome: "I dug myself into a deeper hole every day"

Cat Ferguson struggled with RED-S syndrome last year. The 20-year-old rider from Movistar went without her period for as long as ten months and felt constantly fatigued, she reveals in her column on Cyclingnews. "I rarely had a good or normal day during training and got sick much more often than usual. It was a constant battle between understanding my body and not understanding my body," she admits openly.

Ferguson attributes the RED-S syndrome to her first altitude training camp in the Sierra Nevada last year. "During the altitude camp, I trained an extra twenty to thirty minutes every day and followed my nutrition plan strictly, but I didn’t consider that I was burning more calories. Therefore, training there, as you can probably imagine, did not go very well. I thought it would be normal to come back every day feeling drained and broken because that’s how you reach your peak level. But day by day, I was digging myself into a much deeper hole."

"At first glance, there didn’t seem to be a problem when I returned from the altitude camp. In the first race after altitude training, I immediately booked my first WorldTour win, but even then I noticed I still hadn’t gotten my period. After that, it turned out the benefits of the altitude camp only lasted for a very short time. For the rest of the season, I was very tired and no longer had normal days in training."

Lessons Learned
Ultimately, Ferguson did not get her period for ten months. Fortunately, the past few months have been much better for the Brit. "Luckily, my situation with RED-S syndrome was not very long-lasting. During the off-season, my menstruation returned. I am still not completely back to normal, but I have learned my lessons. Less is more, I would say. Too much stress causes the body more harm than good. For now, altitude camps are off the table for me."

"What I did last year turned out not to be a recipe for long-term success. As a 19-year-old, that should always have been my top priority. It has been a very steep learning curve in my first pro year," she concludes.