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But the reality was, two years after surgery, a substantial number of women hadn’t returned to sport compared to their male counterparts, the study found.
“Only 51 per cent of patients by two years were actively participating in pivoting sports, which really is quite low, but on par with what we see in reported literature,” Ebert says. “Comparing males and females there was a difference, significantly lower in females, 41 per cent, versus 60 per cent of males that were actively participating in their chosen pivoting sport at two years or by two years [post-surgery].”
The anterior cruciate ligament crosses vertically in front of the posterior cruciate ligament. Credit: Getty Images
Anecdotally, Ebert says women in the study expressed a number of reasons for being behind their initial recovery goals, such as fear of re-injury, a change of priorities, and a change in occupational or family roles.
But when it comes to why women are more likely to think they aren’t ready to return to sport, even if they are physically ready, Ebert says researchers just don’t have the answers yet.
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“We clearly lack good evidence looking at the recovery pathway between males and females. A lot of studies have traditionally used males, or they pool subjects and almost assume that both sexes navigate [recovery] down a similar pathway, which is unclear,” Ebert says.
“Once we know where these differences lie, and why they lie there, then we can better tailor what we do, so that includes better counselling, more structured education pathways. We can better tailor our rehab pathways and of course that return to sport decision-making as well,” he said. And if we can identify differences, then we can better understand why those differences exist.”
McHugh, who had the added complication of injuring her medial collateral ligament and meniscus at the same time as her ACL, is determined to get back to skiing along with team sport, but doesn’t think she’ll be as carefree as she was before her injury.
“I think I will try and ski this season [overseas], but I don’t know if I’m ever going to go as fast as I was going again,” she says.
“They say a year post-surgery you should be able to ski, and then potentially next year go back to some kind of team sport, whether it’s AFL or soccer ... I think it takes a lot of work to get over the mental aspect of it when you go into the actual game - can I push myself as best as I used to be able to? I don’t know if I’m going to be able to.”
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