The experts at the forefront of researching brain injuries in athletes say it is inevitable women will be affected by Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE).
Further, Dr Ann McKee from the Boston Brain Bank – the world’s leading authority on CTE – and colleague Chris Nowinski, a neuroscientist and the CEO of the Concussion Legacy Foundation, say it’s possible that females are more susceptible than males to CTE.
Dr Ann McKee says it's only a matter of time before Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy is diagnosed in women. (Source: 1News)
In interviews conducted by TVNZ’s Sunday programme in the course of telling the story of Justin Jennings, the first New Zealand rugby player to be diagnosed with CTE, the degenerative brain disease linked to repeated head knocks, both McKee and Nowinski expressed concern about what contact sports may doing to women's brains.
McKee said CTE – only diagnosable after death – has not yet be found in female athletes (although it has been in domestic assault victims), but that it’s only a matter of time before it is.
“We have far fewer female brains than we have male brains [to examine],” she said. “And as we’re getting more and more female athletes… especially soccer players, those are starting to come in and it’s just a matter of time now before we see our first CTE case.
“There is evidence that women actually are more susceptible to concussion. And that they recover more slowly from the effects of a concussion.
“There are so many benefits to sports participation physically and also psychologically for our children... so I certainly am a proponent of active sports, keeping physically fit and most sports.
“But you do need to play sport sensibly and to remember that you've only got one brain and it has to last you the rest of your life. And you need to protect it from those early instances where you may be damaging it. And parents need to recognise that if a child gets blows to the head they could have long-lasting effects.”
Black Fern Portia Woodman Wickliffe is a recent high-profile victim of concussion after she was hit in a high tackle by Lydia Thompson during New Zealand’s World Cup final victory against England at Eden Park in November.
Now fully recovered and having starred in two World Series sevens tournaments, Woodman Wickliffe said in an interview with 1News that she suffered from headaches for about a fortnight after the World Cup final.
“The first two weeks afterwards I would have a headache coming outside, as soon as I stepped outside - I think it was from the brightness and the noise going around,” she said.
Asked whether the danger of head injuries concerned her, she replied: “I guess it’s in the back of your mind.
“I think I’ve had a couple now and that was my most significant one, but it’s no different to boxing or fighting and I wouldn’t want to stop doing sport or be scared to play a sport because of something… That’s not the only thing that’s going to affect me in the long term - my back's probably the age of a 50 -year-old right now.”
Asked for comment, New Zealand Rugby said in a statement that it "prioritises player safety at all levels of the game and improvements continue to be made, including education, law changes and policies.
"Research and support for women and girls’ rugby is a specific focus, and NZR is supporting several world-leading studies at both the community and professional levels of the game which will significantly contribute to an improved understanding of player safety in women’s sport."
Nowinski, who with McKee set up the Boston Brain Bank - the largest sports brain bank in the world housing the brains some famous athletes including the NFL’s Aaron Hernandez – shares McKee’s concerns about the potential effects on women.
“We absolutely have to be concerned about the proliferation of contact sports for women,” he said.
“We’ve lived in a world where essentially almost exclusively men were getting hit in the head a thousand times a year in sports. And now we’re inviting women to do the same thing, which is great for equality, but it’s terrible for CTE.
“And maybe that’ll help change the argument, because we seem to be fine with men getting this.
"Like, our dads getting it, our sons, our brothers [and] people are not blinking. But if it’s our mums, our sisters, if it’s our daughters, maybe we’ll change.
“But I promise you this is coming for women too, because they're now playing these same sports.”
SHARE ME