Female Injuries in Sports: The Mental Recovery

Olivia Diaz

Sports are a pastime and even a lifestyle for many people, including women, which brings not only physical but also mental and emotional benefits to athletes. But, as we all know, the detrimental downside to athletic activity is the risk of injury. While we know the physical effects of injury, what is the mental side of it? 

With differences in hormones, musculature, flexibility, and bone density, women are more at risk for athletic injury than men. Recent studies have highlighted the mental effects of injury, but fail to represent the disparities and differences regarding gender in those mental effects. 

Men and women have unique physiological compositions that influence not only anatomical structures but also behaviors and emotional responses. Consequently, female and male athletes often react differently to injury and the recovery process. According to Lupine Publishers, “Further significant difference with p = 0.041 emerged in those who experienced burnout after the injury, male n = 26 and m = 2, compared to female n = 76 with m = 2.49, which shows that females are more predisposed to experiencing post-injury burnout.” This is significant because p = 0.041 < 0.05, indicating that the difference in post-injury burnout between females and males is unlikely due to chance. Simply put, in a ratio of men and women experiencing athletic injury, women in tandem are more likely to have post-injury burnout and depression at a mathematically and scientifically significant rate. 

Focusing on the female athlete's mind in relation to athletic injury is crucial to increasing the number of female athletes, particularly in their later years. Still, it is also necessary to diminish the fear-mongering regarding athletic injury and the mental barriers it puts up. 

Beyond the athletic community, the athletic individual is the primary focus of support and research. Post-injury burnout may exacerbate existing vulnerabilities in women’s mental health, which is already a pressing concern. The mental health of women is at an all-time low, with women experiencing depression at a rate of 2.3% higher than men. With this, 6.9% of women will experience depression in their lifetime, no matter the cause; and preventing one more cause to the poor mental health of females should be a significant focus in the medical, psychology, and athletic worlds for both the sake of health and sports. 

Image credit: Orthopedics of Atlanta & Aesthetics Institute