When I tore my ACL at the beginning of my junior year, I constantly asked my parents, doctor, and trainer the question, “Why do female athletes tear their ACL more than male athletes?” I couldn’t understand why it happened because I was in the best shape possible from being a three-season athlete and playing club soccer.
Lately, the tearing of the Anterior Cruciate Ligament, or the ACL, is common among athletes in basketball, football, soccer, and skiing. An ACL injury can occur if one gets hit hard on the side of their knee; overextension of the knee joint; or when one quickly stops moving and changes direction while running, landing from a jump, or turning.
Female athletes have the likelihood of tearing their ACl at rate of two to eight times more than males. According to a study, “women tend to have an imbalance in the strength ration between the quadriceps muscle and their hamstring muscle.” Unlike male athletes who are more likely to decelerate from a sprint using his hamstring, female athletes tend to use their quadriceps muscle, which causes instability in the knee. Other studies come to the general consensus about the difference between men and women , like the “differences in pelvis width and the shape of thigh bone structure, hormonal changes that occur with maturation, and muscular factors that regulate the way muscles around the knee work to protect the joint.” According to Dr. Shybut, sports medicine expert and assistant professor of orthopedic surgery at Baylor, when female athletes make cuts and pivots in sports like soccer and basketball, they tend have a greater trunk motion, resulting in higher rotational forces at the knee, which puts more stress on the ACL therefore, increasing the risk of tearing it. There is still some debate about the exact reasons why these motions lead to an ACL tear, but the increased risk for female athletes is important and very real.
There are exercises that can be done to help strengthen the surrounding muscles to help prevent the tearing of ACLs. Popular trainings include neuromuscular, balance, strength, and core training.
After surgery when I was talking to my therapist, he explained to me that females were more susceptible to ACL tears because most females have an imbalance in the strength ration of the quadricep and hamstring muscles.
Other Websites I used:
https://www.bcm.edu/news/sports-medicine/female-athletes-at-higher-risk-for-acl-tears
https://www.hss.edu/conditions_acl-injury-prevention-stay-off-sidelines.asp
http://www.peakperformanceompt.com/2015/03/neuromuscular-training-and-acl-injuries/
I can definitely relate to this. I am a soccer player, and I tore my ACL when I was 15. At the time of my injury I wasn’t exactly concerned with how it happened, but how fast it would take to heal. In the end, I chose cadaver surgery over the patellar and hamstring. Cadaver surgery is supposed to result in minimal scarring and a faster recovery. However, I was in physical therapy for 10 months so I am often skeptical of that statistic. http://www.orthoassociates.com/SP11B35/
I never would have thought that there was a scientific reason as to why women tear their ACL’s more than men. Actually, I didn’t even know that it was more common in women. My sister tore her ACL and did damage to her meniscus in between her junior and senior year of highschool. She was playing basketball and didn’t move any differently than normal. I couldn’t understand why it had happen or how it happened. Your article helped me realize the mechanics that go into this injury, thank you!