Four clear jars sit atop a wooden shelf, each containing a human brain. An actual human brain. A faded-yellow liquid, the color aging books turn, surrounds each brain, almost seeming to make them float. These brains are just for display, but nearby a hundred or so others are waiting to be examined for various neurodegenerative diseases on this morning in early August at Boston's VA-BU-CLF Brain Bank, tucked discreetly behind the V.A. Hospital.
There will be a brain dissection in a few hours. Most of the brains are housed in large freezers, set at minus 80 degrees Celsius. It's eerie, peering inside those freezers. Each is filled with dozens of small, square containers, which hold various portions of brains. The containers are stacked on top of one another, identified by seemingly indecipherable coding.
These are people. People who had dreams, athletic prowess. Families, memories. Shortcomings, talents. Joys, disappointments. People now reduced to letters and numbers.
Almost all were younger than age 32 when they died. About half took their own lives. Forty percent have been found to have CTE, or chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a degenerative brain disease found in people with a history of repetitive brain trauma.
Most of the brains belonged to men. To football players.
Less than 5 percent belonged to women.
Yet, we know that female athletes have endured repetitive blows to the head, too. Girls soccer players, in particular, have been found to be about as likely to suffer concussions as boys football players—and three times more likely than boys soccer players. But very little is known about what that means for the future, because researchers are hardly studying the long-term consequences of repetitive hits over time in women.
"They're definitely still focused on football. They can't get past football," says neuropathologist Dr. Ann McKee, the director of the VA-BU-CLF Brain Bank, whose research has been integral to our expanding understanding of CTE. "Women aren't even on the radar."
Photo by Stan Grossfeld/The Boston Globe via Getty Images
That's a problem, McKee goes on, because while we don't have enough research to know how differently head trauma affects women than men over time, we do know that the effect does seem to be different. And more high school girls are playing soccer than ever—394,105 in 2018-19, up from 356,116 in 2009-10 and 17,970 in 1978-79, according to the NFHS. It's a trend that will likely only accelerate after the U.S. women's national team's gold-medal winning run at the World Cup this summer.
Over the past decade, women have played a major role in the narrative of men's football brain trauma. Mostly, they've been quoted in articles as advocates, as confidantes. The image has become increasingly familiar: the mothers, wives, girlfriends, sisters, daughters, cast in supporting, caregiving roles, mourning and questioning why this happened to the men close to them who have suffered playing a game they love.
But women are not only on the tragic periphery of CTE and head-trauma issues. They're at the heart of them. Though their place in it has mostly gone unexplored, untold, female athletes have their own stories to tell.
https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2852593-why-womens-soccer-players-are-worried-about-their-brains
There will be a brain dissection in a few hours. Most of the brains are housed in large freezers, set at minus 80 degrees Celsius. It's eerie, peering inside those freezers. Each is filled with dozens of small, square containers, which hold various portions of brains. The containers are stacked on top of one another, identified by seemingly indecipherable coding.
These are people. People who had dreams, athletic prowess. Families, memories. Shortcomings, talents. Joys, disappointments. People now reduced to letters and numbers.
Almost all were younger than age 32 when they died. About half took their own lives. Forty percent have been found to have CTE, or chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a degenerative brain disease found in people with a history of repetitive brain trauma.
Most of the brains belonged to men. To football players.
Less than 5 percent belonged to women.
Yet, we know that female athletes have endured repetitive blows to the head, too. Girls soccer players, in particular, have been found to be about as likely to suffer concussions as boys football players—and three times more likely than boys soccer players. But very little is known about what that means for the future, because researchers are hardly studying the long-term consequences of repetitive hits over time in women.
"They're definitely still focused on football. They can't get past football," says neuropathologist Dr. Ann McKee, the director of the VA-BU-CLF Brain Bank, whose research has been integral to our expanding understanding of CTE. "Women aren't even on the radar."
Photo by Stan Grossfeld/The Boston Globe via Getty Images
That's a problem, McKee goes on, because while we don't have enough research to know how differently head trauma affects women than men over time, we do know that the effect does seem to be different. And more high school girls are playing soccer than ever—394,105 in 2018-19, up from 356,116 in 2009-10 and 17,970 in 1978-79, according to the NFHS. It's a trend that will likely only accelerate after the U.S. women's national team's gold-medal winning run at the World Cup this summer.
Over the past decade, women have played a major role in the narrative of men's football brain trauma. Mostly, they've been quoted in articles as advocates, as confidantes. The image has become increasingly familiar: the mothers, wives, girlfriends, sisters, daughters, cast in supporting, caregiving roles, mourning and questioning why this happened to the men close to them who have suffered playing a game they love.
But women are not only on the tragic periphery of CTE and head-trauma issues. They're at the heart of them. Though their place in it has mostly gone unexplored, untold, female athletes have their own stories to tell.
https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2852593-why-womens-soccer-players-are-worried-about-their-brains
