Emma Talks Sports

On February 25, 2015, I was warming up my tumbling passes on the floor at gymnastics practice. My feet missed the ground and I landed on my back, causing my head to bounce. I sustained whiplash and a concussion that would derail my gymnastics career and leave me with months of recovery and lasting symptoms. What I didn’t know at the time was that simply being a female athlete would be a barrier to my recovery.

When we talk about brain injuries, most of the discussion revolves around football and Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, or CTE. While this is a very real and pressing issue, it fails to paint the whole picture.

Research has demonstrated that girls and women are actually at higher risk of sustaining a sports related concussion, report more severe and longer lasting symptoms than male athletes, and generally require longer recovery times to return to play. Women demonstrated more severe cognitive decline following a head injury, performing worse on verbal and visual memory tests and self reporting a greater wealth of symptoms. These symptoms include, but are not limited to: headache and neck pain, dizziness or blurred vision, nausea and vomiting, trouble balancing, sensitivity to light and noise, difficulty concentrating and remembering, changes to sleep patterns, and increased irritability, confusion, and sadness.

But why do women suffer worse outcomes from brain injuries? We don’t really know. There is not yet enough research to pinpoint the root causes of this disparity, but everything from differences in cerebral blood flow, neck strength, and the size and strength of individual neurons have been put forth as potential contributors. How quickly following injury that the athlete is seen by a medical professional also impacts overall recovery. Gender norms and the attitudes of coaches and peers may also be at play, leading to women being more likely to report concussions and longer lasting symptoms.

The bottom line is that more research is needed and concussion protocol is not one-size-fits-all.