The FAIR – ACL project has been created by Elisa Nédélec and Professor Kirsty Elliott-Sale, researchers from the Musculoskeletal Physiology Research Group at Nottingham Trent University.
This is the first national research study in the United-Kingdom that aims at registering the profile of the reproductive hormones of the female athletes at the time of their non-contact ACL injury.
This is a short animation summarising the background, the rationale and the call for participants of The FAIR-ACL Project:
We would like to thank Felipe Marticorena (@marticorena_sci) and Dr Bryan Saunders (@Bicycle_Bryan), both researchers at the University of São Paulo, for creating this animation for us.
Feel free to share our video with anyone who might be interested.
The participation of girls and women in sports has progressed worldwide, whether as a recreational practice or at a professional competitive level. Depending on the age group, the sport and the level of practice, women are subject to different rates of incidences of musculoskeletal sports-related injuries than those sustained by their male counterparts. As one of the most prominent musculoskeletal injuries, exercising women sustain three to six times more ACL tears than men.
Many studies have shown different causes for why girls and women have more risk of ACL injury than boys and men. One of these causes is the different quantity of sex hormones that women and men produce during their lifespan. Sex hormones have multiple effects on physical functioning, especially during adolescence. The ACL might react to some of these hormonal changes and could change its form at certain points of the lifespan corresponding to different hormonal profiles.