Concussions in Women and Kids

Symptoms and treatment can vary for concussions in women and kids

Anyone at any age can sustain a concussion, but did you know that concussions in women and kids can present different symptoms and require different treatments?

Many concussion statistics focus on sports-related head injuries, but a concussion is a form of traumatic brain injury that can also occur in car accidents, at home, at school or work. If your head jolts forward or backward during a fall or impact, you should watch for symptoms of concussion.  

Knowing the signs of concussion will help you better manage healing for yourself and for your children.

Concussions in Women

To raise awareness of concussions in women, a licensed clinical social worker founded a non-profit organization called Pink Concussions. Its mission is to, “…improve the pre-injury education and post-injury medical care for women and girls challenged by brain injury including concussion incurred from sport, violence, accidents or military service.”

The group’s founder recognized a need to study concussions in women because:

• Women often have more symptoms and more severe symptoms
• Their recovery time tends to be longer than men’s
• Among athletes in similar sports, women sustain more concussions than men

As noted on the Pink website, women’s brains differ from men’s in more than 100 ways, including structure and activity. In addition, hormonal fluctuations might play a role in the severity of a brain injury for a woman.

Concussions in Kids

For children, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) issued its first-ever guidelines regarding concussions in early September 2018. Prior to that time, the only guidelines available to medical providers applied only to adults.

The 19 CDC recommendations for children include:

• Evaluating school-related needs and working in collaboration with teachers to monitor a child’s recovery
• Returning to sports and other activities gradually after a period of rest determined by the child’s doctor
• Discontinuing contact sports until all symptoms have cleared and the child no longer needs pain medication
• Talk to parents and providers about the child’s need for social and emotional support
• Watch for signs of new or worsening symptoms

The CDC has published several brochures outlining these recommendations, available here. Its Management and Treatment brochure provides additional detail for medical providers and parents on the reasons behind each recommendation.

Whether you are a man, woman or child, a concussion deserves your serious attention. Your brain needs time to recover and heal from this mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), and you should take your doctor’s advice seriously to help prevent further complications.

If you have been injured in an accident and need legal advice, contact us for a free case evaluation. We represent clients who have sustained brain injuries, including concussions, as well as a range of other injuries.