Emma Navarro Reveals Harrowing Details of Health Battle That Led to Weight Gain: “My Immune System Was Weakening”

In her latest Instagram post, Emma Navarro revealed that she has been struggling with RED-S (Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport) and Hashimoto’s hypothyroidism for a while now. The persistent health battle caused her significant fatigue, dizziness, weight loss, and nights of restless sleep.

Everything led to deep “internal anger,” which she had never experienced before. Navarro played her first full year on the tour in 2023. She competed in 88 matches, playing almost every week and eventually found herself on the verge of becoming a top 30 player.

The American star continued working during the off-season that year and had quick success in January the following year as she won the Hobart International before making the third round of the Australian Open.

Although things looked great from the outside, she felt something was off. But instead of dwelling on it, she thought this was what being a professional player felt like.

Emma Navarro was experiencing emotions she never felt before, so much so that she wanted to smash every racket in her bag in Hobart, and everything that didn’t align with her specific preferences began to annoy her.

In the fall of 2025, after struggling for several years to figure out a difficult and confusing array of symptoms, I was diagnosed with a condition known as RED-S (Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport), in which your body does not receive enough energy to support the demands of physical activity and daily life. This was further complicated by a diagnosis of Hashimoto’s hypothyroidism, which presented a challenging puzzle of energy intake, energy expenditure and medication to be solved.

Emma Navarro said

The symptoms followed her wherever she played, and she had to be careful about expending her energy, as she couldn’t afford to lose any. Her skin also began to show signs of weakness as she developed rashes on her neck and scalp.

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. My immune system was also weakening. I was getting sick far more than I ever had, but still playing through it.

Emma Navarro added

During the Asian swing, the American star got sick and was so tired and exhausted that when she played a match, she couldn’t see the ball and couldn’t move.

Navarro lost ten pounds over the course of the 2024 season and trained harder during the off-season and soon started to experience the same symptoms that she experienced in Asia.

Emma Navarro ends her 2026 season

Emma Navarro continued to ignore the symptoms and headed to Australia in 2025 and continued to suffer headaches, anxiety, fatigue, brain fog, and mood swings throughout the season. It was in November that she realized that she was under-fueling for almost three years.

After the diagnosis, she fully committed to the recovery process. Navarro started eating what her body needed to recover from the deficit. A few months later, she started sleeping consistently, dizziness started fading, and she felt comfortable in the gym again.

So yeah, I gained some weight this year. But I also gained my life back. I have enough energy to seize every day, to train or compete as hard as I want to, and to live a life outside of tennis. And I have learned that there is no weight on the scale or leanness in your limbs that is more valuable than your health or your well-being.

Emma Navarro wrote on Instagram

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To continue her recovery, she has ended her season early and plans to return to the tour at the Australian Open next year. Navarro was last seen in action in the quarterfinals of the US Open, which she lost to Jessica Pegula.

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