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Dear Dr. SerVaas:

Our granddaughter is 14 years old and hasn't started having her monthly periods. Her cousin and friends her age have periods.

I am concerned about her because I remember reading in The Saturday Evening Post that too much gymnastics or ballet training could cause a girl's bones to become as brittle as an elderly lady's due to a lack of estrogen.

This made me think of our granddaughter. She trains every day of the week in either ballet or gymnastics, and is very thin. She is a vegetarian, and I don't believe she eats well. I've never seen her drink milk.

When did this article appear in the Post? I'd like to go to the library and get a copy of the article.

Marilyn Mayer
Milwaukee, Wisconsin

The "Medical Mailbox" article on Barbara Drinkwater appeared in our Nov./Dec. 1992 issue. Dr. Drinkwater has written extensively in medical journals about the dangers of overdoing ballet and diets. She has also lectured on this topic at the American Academy of Sports Medicine.

According to Dr. Drinkwater, "The female athlete who pushes too hard to stay skinny and to excel at her sport may develop the fragile bones of an elderly woman, and may even have spontaneous fractures.

"Because of this pressure, the women go on drastic diets, and in many cases they drift into disordered eating patterns that can lead to things like anorexia and bulimia," says Dr. Drinkwater. "This is fairly common, and one of the side effects is disruption of the menstrual cycle, which means that these young women have estrogen levels similar to those of postmenopausal women, and they are losing bone."

The sportswomen most concerned about staying skinny are usually those in gymnastics, track, and ice skating. Ballet dancers have the same problem because ballet companies prefer dancers who are very slender, with almost boyish figures. According to one estimate, 40 to 50 percent of female ballet dancers are amenorrheic (do not menstruate), and many are anorexic or bulimic.