This article talks about how women tend to suffer different injuries from
men due to the differences in physical domain, and also in daily activities. It
contributes women’s musculoskeletal engineering, hormone, gender differences on
a molecular level, and life activities as the causes for the certain injuries
in women. The article also deals with the five common injuries in women; the
injuries were hand osteoarthritis, Carpal tunnel syndrome, De Quervain’s
tenosynovitis, peroneal tendinosis, and Bunions and hammer toes. The causes for
many of the injuries were due to the daily activities arranging from doing
house chores to wearing high-heels. However, we should not neglect the fact
that using certain parts of our body playing or participating in sports may
also contribute to the cause of such injuries.
As more females participate in sport and
physical activity, certain knowledge and clinical skills are required to meet
the needs of female athletes like menstrual cycle, gynecologic irregularities,
birth control, pregnancy, eating disorders, and osteoporosis. Physically active women are at risk for a
group of symptoms called the Female Athlete Triad, which contains disordered
eating, amenorrhea, and osteoporosis. This disorder is common in sports that
require an ideal body weight or optimal level of body fat such as gymnastics,
figure skating, cross-country, diving, swimming, and ballet.1
A friend of mine is a professional
diver. A few days ago, I saw her Facebook posts about how she feels sorry for
her mother that she is taking nutritional supplements for osteoporosis earlier
than her mother. It reminded
me of how participating in sport activity may cause certain symptoms to female
athletes. As allied health professionals, athletic
trainers should educate female athletes about these concerns. This educational process
will enable the female athletes to be heads-up for their possible conditions.
For example, female athletes can minimize the occurrence of ACL injuries by
having optimal strength or correcting knee alignment. As a side note, the
reasons for the different rates of injury in men and women are not clear, but
some theories show female athletes have 4-10 times more ACL injuries than male
athletes due to differences in anatomy, knee alignment, ligament laxity, muscle
strength, and conditioning.2
Some
factors described above cannot be prevented or be changed, because it is the
way human body is built. However, there are surely other factors that can be
prevented by care and effort. Such effort can be put together by the
cooperation of athletes and athletic trainers. It is important for both
athletes and athletic trainers to remember that there is always a way to prevent
the injuries in advance, and it can be realized through thoroughly paid
attention and care.
Access the article here:
Reference:
1.
Anderson M. K, Parr G. P, Hall S. J. Foundations of athletic training:
prevention, assessment, and management. 4th ed. Philadelphia,
PA: Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2009:825-838.
2.
Maurer-Starks S. ACL injuries. ATTR 540 Manage Lower
Extremity Conditions. Lecture conducted from Bridgewater State University,
Bridgewater; 2013
Moonsung,
ReplyDeleteThis is a great issue that you have brought up. Today in our society, we see more and more female athletes and along with that comes their injuries. Women have stepped out of their stereotypical role as house wives and have become an equals to men, resulting in more female in sports and roles that were originally delineated to males. Females are built a bit differently than compared to males such as having a larger Q angle than men that may cause more injuries. We must take account that men and women had extremely different mechanics and may injure themselves in an unconventional way.
I agree with you that we have to be aware of our athletes health such as those that are cross country runners, gymnasts, swimmers and other athletes that may not seem to be themselves. We need to educate our athletes about the Female Triad because most of our young athletes have no idea what it is. They may think that because of school, they have been more stressed that why they are not eating as much. As athletic trainers, we must train ourselves to recognize these red flags in order to prevent disorders and injuries of our female athletes. It may be a bit difficult for male athletic trainers to speak to their female athletes about personal information but as male athletic trainers, they must educate their athletes with the statistics and information about the Female Triad and learn how to converse with their athletes as uncomfortable it may be. If the male athletic trainer has difficulties he should ask a female colleague with some assistance in the matter with the female athlete's consent first.
Hi Moonsung,
ReplyDeleteI really liked your post in that it was very informative. I feel that as a woman we need to be educated while we're still young so that we can know bout our bodies and how they differ from that of a man. I think that going in most don't know that there is a higher risk of knee injuries because of how our bodies are aligned. Maybe it would be a good idea for coaches to be educated on how to strengthen certain muscles of the body for teams such as basketball, soccer, and volleyball so that there is less of a chance of an Acl injury. I also agree with you on the fact that as an athletic trainer you need to be able to recognize signs and symptoms of possible eating disorders, since eating disorders can be very common and very serious in young athletes.