- Who this is for
- Former and current athletes, roughly 40 and older, at any level from college to pro
- What we start with
- A history of your sport plus a lab baseline
- What we do not do
- Physical exams, imaging, DEXA scans or anti-doping exemptions
- Cost to check eligibility
- Free; labs and treatment priced separately
Why being an athlete is not a health guarantee
Many former athletes assume their fitness bank account keeps paying out forever. The research is more mixed. A 2023 scoping review of 20 studies on former athletes aged about 40 to 65 found that endurance athletes tended to keep leaner bodies, higher aerobic capacity and better cholesterol and glucose numbers than non-athletes. Former team-sport athletes, who had more injuries, sometimes did worse than people who were simply active as young adults.
The same review found one thread that ran through almost everything: former athletes who stayed active in midlife were healthier than those who stopped. In other words, what you do now matters at least as much as what you did then.
There is also a blind spot in the evidence. Most of those studies enrolled only men, which leaves women who competed with less data to go on. We cover that gap on its own page.
Different sports leave different footprints
It helps to think about your history by the kind of load your body carried, because each tends to leave a different pattern behind.
- Endurance (running, cycling, triathlon, rowing, swimming): strong fitness and lipid profiles, but a large study of lifelong male endurance athletes found more coronary plaque than in non-athletic men.
- Collision and team sports (football, rugby, hockey, lacrosse): weight gained to play, joint injuries and a high rate of sleep apnea in some groups.
- Strength and power (weightlifting, throwing, sprinting, bodybuilding): body weight that hides changes in muscle and fat, and sometimes a history of anabolic steroid use that affects hormone results.
- Lean and aesthetic sports (gymnastics, dance, distance running): a higher chance of past under-fueling, with effects on bone and hormones that can outlast the sport.
What an athletic history protects, and what it does not
Bone built through impact and heavy loading during youth tends to persist, but mostly at the sites that were loaded. Aerobic fitness and good lipids often carry forward, especially if you keep training. Habits like showing up, following a plan and tolerating discomfort are real assets.
What it does not protect you from: arterial plaque, inherited cholesterol risks such as lipoprotein(a), sleep apnea, the consequences of old injuries, and the hormonal shifts of midlife. These can be present in someone who still looks and feels fit.
How HealifyMD approaches a former athlete
We start with your story: the sport, the years, how much you weighed when you played versus now, injuries, periods of restriction or missed periods, and anything you took to perform or recover. That history changes how we read your labs.
From there, a licensed clinician can order a baseline panel and review it with you in a video or online visit. Depending on what we find, options may include hormone therapy, medical weight management, or simply a plan to retest. When a question needs a physical exam, imaging, a sleep study or a bone density scan, we tell you so and point you toward in-person care.
What a baseline usually looks at
Standard work-physical labs often stop at a basic cholesterol panel and a blood count. For someone with a training history, a broader picture is usually more useful, and your clinician decides what fits you.
- Heart and metabolism: lipids, apolipoprotein B, lipoprotein(a), glucose and HbA1c
- Hormones: testosterone with SHBG in men; menopause-stage context and hormones in women
- Bone and energy: vitamin D, calcium, thyroid function, iron stores (ferritin) and vitamin B12
- Liver and kidney function, which can be affected by past supplement or drug use
- Screening questions for sleep apnea, mood and alcohol, which labs cannot capture
If you still compete
Masters and age-group athletes who enter events run under anti-doping rules can be tested. Testosterone, DHEA, BPC-157 and growth hormone–releasing peptides are prohibited at all times under the World Anti-Doping Agency list. A prescription is not a defense, and HealifyMD cannot obtain a therapeutic use exemption for you. Read our page on still competing before you start any treatment.
