Tennis pro Emma Navarro has given fans a look at the mysterious health issues that plagued her for three years while she battled her own body to stay on top of her game.
“I feel compelled to share my story both out of respect for my loyal followers who have stuck with me through the highs and lows of the last year, and also in the hope that it will resonate with at least a few people who may be facing similar struggles,” Navarro, 25, wrote to begin a lengthy Instagram statement posted on Wednesday, September 30.
She explained that in Fall 2025, she was diagnosed with RED-S, or Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport, a condition in which an athlete’s body does not receive enough energy to meet the demands of competition. It was further exacerbated by a diagnosis of Hashimoto’s hyperthyroidism, which occurs when one’s immune system attacks the thyroid, making it harder for the gland to produce enough thyroid hormone, according to the Cleveland Clinic.
Navarro revealed that her symptoms began subtly as she appeared to be in perfect health to outsiders — but she felt like something was off.
“I was experiencing emotions I had never experienced before, at least not to this severity,” she explained. “Irritability, frustration, perfectionism, worry, and bizarrely for me, anger.”
Navarro continued, “Additionally, I was hungry. Every hour of the day, I was hungry. I had lost almost 20 pounds throughout 2023 and I thought I was doing what professional athletes are supposed to do. Getting lean to optimize performance.”
At the same time, Navarro’s immune system weakened and she became sick far more often than usual. In some instances, it battled simple head colds, which she fought with Tylenol and some extra rest. But the headaches and dizziness that could come with a cold soon became persistent.
“I couldn’t think straight a lot of the time and I had trouble remembering things and articulating thoughts,” Navarro wrote. “My brain felt slow and tired, as did my body. I had to be so careful about expending energy because I couldn’t afford to waste any. I had night after night of restless sleep, waking up just as tired as before. My skin began to show signs of weakness, developing rashes on my neck and scalp.”
She continued to push forward as her play on the court started to suffer and she faced criticism from outsiders who thought she had fallen off. In late 2025, Navarro met with doctors and specialists who finally figured out what was wrong.
“We figured out that I had been under-fueling for almost three years,” Navarro said. “My body was fighting back any way it knew how. It had been screaming at me for years and I ignored it. After accepting the position I was in, I fully committed to recovering. I knew the road ahead wasn’t going to be easy, but I was willing to do anything to feel like myself again.”
She continued, “Changing my diet, increasing my energy intake, blood draws, medicine prescriptions and tweaks, visiting different doctors, and nutritionists, monitoring blood sugar, logging symptoms, searching for patterns, etc. We worked to properly address a hypothyroid condition that had also worsened over time. And although it took a while to start feeling better, I gradually made progress. I began eating what my body needed to recover from the deficit I had been in.”
Navarro soon began to feel the benefits. The dizziness subsided and she began sleeping through the night. Her emotions returned to something that made sense to her and her “mental bandwidth expanded.”
Relieved as Navarro is to be on the road to recovery, she finished her note by telling fans that she is taking the remainder of 2026 off as she tries to feel “100 percent again.”
“I will not be competing in Asia this year, but I plan to be back on the road starting in Australia 2027,” Navarro concluded.
