The British & Irish Lions tour to Australia will be remembered as much for Garry Ringrose\u2019s admirable admission that he had concussion symptoms before pulling himself out of the second Test as for the actual outcome of the series.<\/p>\n
Now the spotlight turns to the women\u2019s game ahead of the Rugby World Cup in England, with research in recent years showing that female athletes respond differently to concussions than their male counterparts.<\/p>\n
A study in 2021 carried out by Tracey Covassin, a professor at Michigan State University\ufeff, showed that female athletes are twice as likely to suffer a concussion in football, while also experiencing differing symptoms \ufeff\u2014 prolonged headaches, mental fatigue and \ufeffpoor concentration. Recovery times on average for female adolescents competing in sports including football and American football were also longer at 76 days than for male adolescents, who took 50 days.<\/p>\n
One reason behind female athletes potentially being more susceptible to concussions comes down to neck strength, according to \ufeffDr Marshall Garrett, Honorary Senior Lecturer at University of Glasgow Medical School\ufeff.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you actually look at the ratio of neck muscle bulk to head and neck mass,\ufeff women have a much poorer ratio of neck muscle bulk, and you can conflate that into less muscle strength,\u201d Garrett said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf women have poorer neck strength and poorer neck resilience they are more likely\ufeff to have greater head and neck acceleration for a set impact [\ufefflead\ufeffing to a concussion].\u201d<\/p>\n
Still raw is the memory of former international Siobhan Cattigan, who suffered two concussions on Scotland duty. Her family said undetected rugby-related brain damage caused her tragic death in November 2021.<\/p>\n
Improving awareness of the long-term risks from concussions\ufeff remains paramount. A study by The Physician and Sportsmedicine\ufeff journal last year found that out of 230 female rugby players across the Premiership, Championship, British Universities & Colleges Sport and club level, 41% admitted to deliberately failing to report a suspected rugby concussion.<\/p>\n
The same study found that the prevalence of concussion did not differ by position or playing level.<\/p>\n
Garrett in addition has called for the mandatory stand-down period after a concussion at the elite level of the sport to be extended from 12 days back to the original 28-day period. The current stand-down period at grassroots level is 21 days.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a 12-day return to play for elites because they\u2019re being monitored by elite doctors,\u201d Garrett said. \u201c\ufeffI\u2019ve been in the game for 40-something years, and I can\u2019t tell you precisely how badly your brain is damaged, because it\u2019s microscopic. \ufeffThere is no clinical basis on which that [12-day period] was chosen, you know? It\u2019s an arbitrary figure\ufeff. The longer [recovery], the better.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Observer can reveal that 19 female players from rugby union and rugby league are part of 1,200 athletes involved in a class-action lawsuit against sports authorities,\ufeff seeking damages and claiming that the governing bodies were negligent in failing \ufeffto protect them from serious brain injuries. That contingent includes the former England prop Teresa\ufeff O\u2019Reilly, Wales international Non Evans and Canada\u2019s Meghan Mutrie.<\/p>\n
Research into the effects of concussion on female rugby players is belatedly increasing, with the use of smart mouthguards monitoring head impacts\ufeff along with the trial of a saliva test to diagnose concussion. World Rugby\u2019s latest call for funding applications also included a request for women\u2019s specific research. The biggest Rugby World Cup in the history of the women\u2019s game will lead to more attention on the sport and \ufeffhead injuries than ever before.<\/p>\n
\u201cBe overly cautious with a brain and you\u2019ll never regret it,\u201d Garrett said. \u201cAll you will regret is not being cautious enough.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI had a seizure on the pitch \u2013 I get migraines now that I never used to\u201d<\/p>\n
Former England rugby wing Kat Merchant\u2019s career was punctuated by concussions \u2013 here she reveals the concerns that she had during that time<\/p>\n
Officially I had 11 concussions in my career but, to be honest, I probably had more than that when you realise what a concussion actually is. At the time I didn\u2019t\ufeff even really know, and some would definitely have been missed.<\/p>\n
I was fully knocked out maybe five times and the symptoms each time became worse. The first time I was sick that night, I went to A&E and was cleared, then the next day I was absolutely fine.<\/p>\n
The concussions were spaced out over my career, which is why I am not too concerned. Concussions in quick succession are a lot more dangerous\ufeff for you.<\/p>\n
The last one I experienced led to four months of just not feeling normal. Lights were too bright, noises were too loud in my head. It made me want to sit alone in the dark and not interact with anyone because you were scared of making it worse. You are told to try to relax, but you can\u2019t read because it makes the headache worse.<\/p>\n
I felt like I was constantly on a ferry, as if you are moving around but you\u2019re not. It was horrible. When you reach that point at four months you start to think: \u201cAm I ever going to feel normal again?\ufeff\u201d<\/p>\n
You want to get back to playing and you don\u2019t know if you will, which builds up anxiety, especially in 2014 when I was worried about making the Rugby World Cup with\ufeff the England\ufeff team.<\/p>\n
From the studies I have seen, women are more likely to have a concussion, and unfortunately after you have one, you are then three times more likely to have another. It spirals. People will either have never had a concussion, or had five.<\/p>\n
With the last concussion I actually had a seizure on the pitch, which was pretty scary for people. That one\ufeff really changed how people viewed me. They were genuinely looking at me and asking: \u201cWhy are you coming back?\u201d<\/p>\n
When I completely detached my elbow \ufeff\u2014 my arm was the wrong way round \ufeff\u2014 everyone asked when I was coming back, whereas the seizure made people ask: \u201cShould you be playing again?\u201d When your own team-mates are asking that, then it becomes pretty serious.<\/p>\n
I never used to get migraines but I do since the concussions. I had one a month ago and it was horrible. General life is fine. I\u2019ve had two check-ups since where they have done MRIs and memory checks and I\u2019m where you would expect someone my age to be.<\/p>\n
Fortunately they have not found anything significant.<\/p>\n
Photograph by PA Images\/Alamy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The British & Irish Lions tour to Australia will be remembered as much for Garry Ringrose\u2019s admirable admission…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55783,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-55782","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55782","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55782"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55782\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}