Research into women's sporting injuries

Girls and women are approximately three to six times more likely to suffer an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury, which can be career-ending for athletes.

Research from Dr Sheree Bekker in Bath’s Centre for Health, and Injury & Illness Prevention in Sport, explores the intersection between societal factors and injuries for female athletes. Her recent work examines the disparity in knee injury rates between men and women, stating that gendered environments play a significant role in this disparity in ACL injury rates.

In 2023, Dr Bekker, was part of a team awarded two prizes from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and the Institute of Musculoskeletal Health and Arthritis for their research published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

Their research has since been endorsed by women’s soccer organizations in Australia and the UK and has been featured in international and media presentations, including the Washington Post, Yahoo Sports and Women’s Health Magazine.

Working with Professor Stephen Mumford from Durham University, Dr. Bekker has founded the Feminist Sport Lab, a space for the application of feminist principles to sport.

Research at Bath has also explored how female athletes are more likely to get injured at certain points in their menstrual cycle. A 2024 study published in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise found that football players in England’s top-tier Women's Super League (WSL) were six times more likely to experience a muscle injury in the days leading up to their period compared to when they were on their period.

The research by Ally Barlow, first author of the study from the University of Bath (MSC Sports Physiotherapy 2019-2022) and a physiotherapist at the WSL club, was the first prospective longitudinal work monitoring menstrual cycles alongside injuries in female footballers.

In this study, researchers at UCL and the University of Bath recorded time-loss injuries and menstrual cycle data for elite female football players across three seasons. All of the players were based at one Women’s Super League (WSL) club, the top tier of women’s football in England. During the study they tracked 593 cycles across 13,390 days, in which time 26 players experienced 74 injuries. Analysis of the data found that players were six times more likely in the pre-menstrual phase and five times more likely in the early-mid luteal phase to experience a muscle injury, compared to when they were in the menstrual phase.

Improving period pain management

Period pain affects 93% of teenage girls, with 36% missing school and 77% struggling to concentrate in class during their period.

Dr Abbie Jordan in the Department of Psychology is working to address the growing concern of how periods and period pain can impact the school lives of teenage girls in the UK.

Working with Dr Emma Fisher, Department for Health, Dr Melanie Channon and Dr Rebecca Evans, Department of Social and Policy Sciences, and Professor Lucy Bray, from Edge Hill University, the research currently involves a diverse range of up to 12 secondary schools in the UK and will better understand attitudes toward period pain and challenge misconceptions, empowering girls to tackle the barriers.

Helping diagnose autism in women

About 700,000 people in the UK are living with autism and it is under-diagnosed in females; three times as many males as females are diagnosed.

Researchers from our Department of Psychology have developed a potential new tool to help clinicians detect hidden signs of autism in adults.

Autism is usually diagnosed in childhood but a growing number of adults are being diagnosed with the condition, even in mid-to-late adulthood. Many adults develop compensatory psychological strategies to hide their symptoms from clinicians, employers and even their own families.

In the study, published in Molecular Autism, the researchers outlined a checklist of 31 compensatory strategies that doctors, psychiatrists and psychologists could look for or ask their clients about.

Dr Punit Shah from Bath's Department of Psychology co-authored the research, said: “This is an important practical step in translating recent work on compensatory strategies in autism towards clinical practice. Equally, it is important to note that it isn’t just autistic people who use these strategies and it isn’t merely a clinically relevant phenomenon.

Shedding light on the impact of domestic abuse

Research from Dr Lucy Hiscox from the University's Department of Psychology has shed light on how domestic abuse against women during pregnancy can potentially have a significant impact on how the unborn baby’s brain develops.

Working in collaboration with researchers from the University of Cape Town, Dr Hiscox led a study to analyse brain scans of South African infants whose mothers had been subject to intimate partner violence (IPV) during pregnancy. Intimate partner violence includes emotional, physical and/or sexual abuse or assault.

Publishing their findings in the journal Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, the research team reported that maternal exposure to IPV during pregnancy is associated with alterations in brain structure in young infants identified shortly after birth.