As more women take up sports, researchers are discussing whether there are gender differences in the types of injuries sustained. “When women first started participating in athletics, everyone’s concern was: Women are fragile; they shouldn’t be doing these things; they’re going to get permanently injured and deformed,” says Dr. Cheryl Rubin, an orthopedic surgeon at Good Samaritan Hospital in Suffern, N.Y.
“So researchers started looking at whether there were truly any anatomic and physiologic differences between females and males that could account for differences in injuries. We wanted to know if women were having certain injuries because they were women,” says Rubin.
Studies conducted in the 1970s by Dr. Christine Haycock, a surgeon specializing in sports medicine, suggested not. A 1984 study by the U.S. Naval Academy found that women midshipmen had the same number of major injuries as their male counterparts. Basketball was the only sport in which there were gender differences in injury level: A few more ligament injuries were noted in female basketball players than males, leading researchers to conclude that injuries were sport-specific, not gender-specific. Subsequent studies have reached the same conclusion, Rubin said in a talk at a meeting of the American Medical Women’s Association.
While women do not appear to suffer significantly different injuries than men, they do suffer some at increased rates. For instance, women tend to experience more musculoskeletal conditions, including knee pain, as a result of running, swimming and cycling.
“This is a common culprit in middle-aged women who decide to go back to participating in sports,” says Rubin. “They join the gym and get a personal fitness instructor who starts them right in on the knee or leg extension machine. This puts a lot of stress on the back of the knee cap, and pretty soon they start complaining of pain.”
Stress fractures are another problem, particularly for young female athletes who lose their menstrual periods. When periods stop, often the result of an eating disorder or excessive training, women’s estrogen levels drop and they lose bone mass at an age when they should be building it. Stress fractures in young women who are involved in such sports as gymnastics or dance, should raise a red flag, says Rubin.
Women in their mid-40s and early 50s who have gone through early menopause may also be at risk for these fractures, particularly if they’re not on estrogen replacement.
Women are also more prone to abdominal injuries. “Most women athletes do not have the strength in their abdominal muscles,” explains Haycock, professor emeritus of surgery at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey in Newark. “If they sustain a blow to the abdomen, it’s more apt to push in enough to cause an internal injury.”
But many serious injuries can be prevented. Women should wear appropriate protective gear when participating in sports activities, says Haycock.
If you experience a sprain or strain, stop the activity that caused it and apply ice for 20 minutes, says Dr. Peter Bruno of the Nicholas Institute of Sports Medicine and Athletic Trauma in New York. Then compress the area with a supportive elastic bandage and elevate it.
