Women's Sports Medicine Program

We aim to lead the advancement of women’s sports and exercise medicine through multidisciplinary expert clinical care, research and education.

Our Mission

Our experts from multiple specialties provide coordinated and comprehensive care for female athletes. We provide cutting edge, evidence-driven treatment and to contribute to the scientific knowledge necessary to optimize the care of female athletes. As women continually break barriers in their careers in sports, the Women’s Sports Medicine Program at Mass General is designed to support the growing medical needs of this unique population.

Clinical Care

Our experts are leaders in their fields, each with a special interest in treating female athletes and experience in treating athletes in female-specific sports.

Research

Together, our experts collaborate to identify and develop solutions to female-specific injuries and conditions in sports medicine.

Learn more about the education programs in the Women's Sports Medicine Program at Mass General.

Education & Outreach

We provide education, focusing particularly on improving community education & outreach on important topics like injury prevention for athletes, coaches, athletic trainers and parents.

What makes female athletes different?

As the caliber of women's sports continues to rise, the image and definition of the female athlete continues to evolve. Women are more commonly staying active with age, and participating in an expanding variety of sports and exercise modalities. With this, the rates of acute and overuse injuries we see in females athletes are rapidly rising, yet knowledge of the factors that influence injuries in women is still evolving.

Tears of the ACL are 4-8x more likely to occur in females than males.

Differences in movement patterns and muscle weaknesses can cause females to be at greater risk for injury.

Disordered eating is a common problem in female athletes.

Whether intentional or not, alterations in diet and energy availability can lead to serious metabolic consequences that can result in bone injury.

Can hormones play a role in sports injuries?

Hormonal changes can influence certain musculoskeletal conditions. Changes in energy availability can also cause hormonal alterations.

Our experts in the news

Dr. Kelly McInnis on Charged podcast

Kelly McInnis, DO discusses her interest in working with female athletes and unique challenges they face. She talks about her passion for helping athletes of all levels recover, as well as her how her background in non-surgical care can complement the work of orthopaedic surgeons.

Listen to Dr. McInnis' podcast

Dr. Kelly McInnis was featured on Mass General's podcast, Charged

Softball pitchers commonly throw more pitches per game and season than their baseball counterparts

The greatest stress to the shoulder during a softball windmill pitch is at ball release. Eric Berkson, MD and Luke Oh, MD investigated shoulder torques among female softball pitchers and identified relationships to the kinematics of the elbow and forearm and alignment of the elbow.

Read their publication from Feb. 2019