Quote:

---

The university's "Women's Health and Performance Initiative" will collect biometric data from women student-athletes and professional players and use machine learning to create new predictive health models specifically for female physiology.

Despite the massive growth in women's sports over the last three decades, the science has not kept pace. Published research in sports and exercise focused on women is nearly obsolete; less than 10% of sports medicine and sports science research has involved women athletes exclusively.

This persistent research gap has resulted in real-world disadvantages, leaving women athletes prone to preventable, career-ending injuries at rates significantly higher than their male counterparts.
Dr. Cindy Chang, the chief medical officer for the National Women's Soccer League and a former head team physician at Cal, highlighted the severity of the research void.

"Without that baseline epidemiological data, we have no idea how our interventions are going to impact injury rates and performance," Chang said.

In collegiate and professional sports, women suffer from anterior cruciate ligament tears at significantly higher rates than men. Chang noted that she struggled to find resources to study these injury rates as far back as 1995. Thirty years later, that lack persists, she said.

"An ACL injury today can be career-ending for a female athlete, but for their male counterparts, no longer," Napolitano said. In an email to KQED, Chang noted that the first phase of research will focus on identifying the most common injuries to establish baseline data that doesn't currently exist. This includes analyzing return-to-play protocols and the mental and physical variables that affect recovery.

---

Quote:

---

Anatomically, men and women are not created equal. The female pelvis is wider, which changes the mechanics of how the thigh bone, tibia, and femur function, says Dr. Gardner. This puts more stress on the soft tissues that support your joints, she explains.

This higher stress can lead to either a chronic (overuse) or acute (sudden) injury. According to research, an ACL tear is one acute injury that female athletes are two to eight times more likely to experience than males. The ACL, a ligament in the knee that connects the femur to the tibia, is extraordinarily strong, yet has little elasticity, Dr. Gardner says. "It absorbs a huge amount of stress until it can't hold on anymore, and then it tears," she explains, adding that tears are especially common in sports that require pivoting and jumping, including soccer, basketball, lacrosse, and skiing.

Additionally, women have less muscle mass around their knees than men, says Samantha Smith, MD, a Yale Medicine primary care sports medicine specialist. "That, too, can lead to instability and a higher chance of tearing a ligament if it is overstretched," she adds.

This is where a combination of additional stress and hormones might come into play. Compared to men, women have less testosterone, a key hormone for increasing muscle density. Women also have much more estrogen than men. Essential to bone growth, this hormone fluctuates during a woman's menstrual cycle. Estrogen may also cause greater laxity (looseness) in tendons and ligaments, which can make women more prone to injury.

---

CalWSportsFan said:

---

Biomechanics....anatomy....hormones.... https://www.yalemedicine.org/news/sports-injuries-gender

Quote:

---

Anatomically, men and women are not created equal. The female pelvis is wider, which changes the mechanics of how the thigh bone, tibia, and femur function, says Dr. Gardner. This puts more stress on the soft tissues that support your joints, she explains.

This higher stress can lead to either a chronic (overuse) or acute (sudden) injury. According to research, an ACL tear is one acute injury that female athletes are two to eight times more likely to experience than males. The ACL, a ligament in the knee that connects the femur to the tibia, is extraordinarily strong, yet has little elasticity, Dr. Gardner says. "It absorbs a huge amount of stress until it can't hold on anymore, and then it tears," she explains, adding that tears are especially common in sports that require pivoting and jumping, including soccer, basketball, lacrosse, and skiing.

Additionally, women have less muscle mass around their knees than men, says Samantha Smith, MD, a Yale Medicine primary care sports medicine specialist. "That, too, can lead to instability and a higher chance of tearing a ligament if it is overstretched," she adds.

This is where a combination of additional stress and hormones might come into play. Compared to men, women have less testosterone, a key hormone for increasing muscle density. Women also have much more estrogen than men. Essential to bone growth, this hormone fluctuates during a woman's menstrual cycle. Estrogen may also cause greater laxity (looseness) in tendons and ligaments, which can make women more prone to injury.

---

---