These stats blow my mind. Female athletes are up to 8 times more likely to injury their knees than male athletes. And these types of knee injuries cost the health care system 2 billion (with a b) dollars each year!!
That said, this new research out of the U of C’s faculty of medicine could help prevent some of these injuries. Researchers found that depending on a certain time in a woman’s menstrual cycle, they’re more prone to injury. It has to do with a connection between how lax their knee joint is and the time of their cycle. Fifty percent of female athletes are most prone to injury during ovulation. The others are split, before and after ovulation. When women have their period, they’re actually most stable.
So what’s most promising is now researchers can predict when a woman is most likely to injure her knee. They can do simple tests to find out when the athlete is most flexible and warn them, this is not the best time to be doing more aggressive training.
For more information on this new study, visit the website