It’s been well documented that female athletes experience concussions at a greater rate than their male counterparts. A recent study found that over a five-year period, the per 1,000 athlete-exposures of concussions were 6.3 in females versus 3.4 in males in soccer, 6.0 in females to 3.9 in males in basketball, and 3.3 in females versus 0.9 in males in baseball/softball. So while we know that men and women experience concussions at different frequencies, what we don’t know is the pathological differences in symptom prevalence and concussion expression between the two sexes. A recent study sought to discern the differences between concussions in male and female athletes.
According to researchers, males and females experience similar concussion symptoms up until they reach puberty. At this time, hormones and other developmental changes take place in our bodies, and these can cause concussions to have different impacts on the sexes.
According to Zachary Kerr, director of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Injury Surveillance Program, “larger portions of females are reporting sensitivity to light, sensitivity to noise, nausea and drowsiness.”
But that’s not all. According to Kerr, females:
- Were slower to return to normal activity than men after a concussion.
- Suffered more severe symptoms than men after a concussion
- Suffered a wider range of symptoms than men after a concussion.
Interestingly, researchers noted that symptoms appeared to converge again after females went through menopause, suggesting that hormonal differences are creating irregularities in symptom expression between the two sexes.
Concussions and the Sexes
Mayumi Prins, a neurobiologist at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), noted that differences in concussion symptom expression between the sexes can have far-reaching implications. She noted that concussions may affect how teens interact with one another, and that the adolescent stage is a crucial period for social interaction.
“Social interactions were different,” said Prins, speaking about a study involving rats that explored how concussions impacted social interactions with others. “This can have serious consequences during a development time period when social interaction is really key to their growth and development,” she said, adding that repeated concussions can have a compounded effect.
In the end, researchers say the findings suggest that doctors should not only be tailoring their care based on concussion severity, but also by gender. The more we learn about how concussions affect each individual person, the better we can treat the injury and ensure they have adequate recovery before returning to activity.