Women Suffer Concussions Differently Than Men

Traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) include any injury to the head that affects the brain’s function – including concussions, a hit to the head that causes the brain to whip back and forth rapidly.

Current research shows that women suffer from concussions and other TBIs differently than men. Women:

●      have increased risk of getting a concussion,

●      have more severe symptoms,

●      take longer to recover.

 1. WOMEN MAY SUSTAIN MORE CONCUSSIONS THAN MEN IN SIMILAR SPORTS

Some research suggests that women in collegiate sports sustained more concussions during practices and games than men in the same sport. Soccer was also found to be the women’s sport with the highest rate of concussions (over basketball, lacrosse, softball, and gymnastics).

2. WOMEN EXPERIENCE LONGER AND MORE SEVERE SYMPTOMS THAN MEN

Not only do women take longer to recover from a concussion, but they also have more severe symptoms. “Women actually had symptoms three to four weeks later, where typically the males recover 10 to 14 days after [a head injury],” Dr. Tracey Covassin from Michigan State University noted in her research. “Women had neurocognitive impairments a lot longer than males and had difficulty remembering and concentrating.”

 3. A WOMAN’S HORMONES MAY AFFECT HEALTH OUTCOMES FOLLOWING A CONCUSSION

For example, if the concussion is sustained during the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle, progesterone production slows, making concussion symptoms, such as headache, dizziness, and nausea worse compared with women injured during the first two weeks, when progesterone was low (i.e. the follicular phase), and with those who were taking contraceptive pills.