Specialized Care for Female Athletes

How We Support Female Athletes Through All Stages of Life

We help female athletes and families better understand topics like injury prevention, hormonal and menstrual health, pelvic floor health, heart health, fueling, training and recovery. Our expert care extends from early sports participation through college athletics, pregnancy, postpartum return to sport and lifelong fitness.

Our goal is to care for the whole athlete, not just the injury. We bring multiple specialists together in one coordinated program designed specifically for female athletes.

Why This Program Is Needed

Female athletes experience distinct physical and hormonal changes that can directly affect performance, injury risk and long-term health. Research shows that female athletes are at higher risk for certain injuries, such as ACL tears, stress fractures and conditions related to low energy availability.

Pregnancy, postpartum recovery and pelvic floor health also play critical roles in training adaptation and overall well-being for female athletes. For example, women returning to sports or exercise after they’ve had a baby may experience pelvic floor dysfunction symptoms that can be relieved with pelvic floor therapy. However, all women – from young female athletes to postmenopausal woman – are at higher risk than men to experience urinary leakage and other pelvic floor dysfunction symptoms during athletic activity. Another important area is heart health, as the signs and symptoms of heart disease in female athletes tend to differ from those seen in men.

Too often, female athletes must navigate these challenges without coordinated guidance, seeing multiple providers who may not specialize in women’s sports health. Our program bridges that gap by delivering integrated, expert-driven care – including primary care sports medicine and cardiology – tailored specifically to the female athlete at every stage of life.

Specialties

Katie Nguyen, ATC Clinical Athletic Trainer

Specialties in our program include:

• Adult & Pediatric Primary Care Sports Medicine
• Orthopedic Sports Medicine
• Primary Care
• Clinical Nutrition Services
  • Dietitians
• Dermatology
• Ear, Nose and Throat
• Endocrinology
• UH Connor Whole Health
  • Chiropractic Services
• UH Harrington Heart & Vascular Sports Cardiology
• OB/GYN & Women’s Health
  • Pelvic Floor Therapy
  • Reproductive Endocrinology
• Plastic, Reconstructive and Cosmetic Surgery
• Psychiatry & Psychology
• Rheumatology Services
• Urology

Performance Training and Adult Fitness Classes

UH Drusinsky Sports Medicine Institute partners with T3 Performance to offer sports performance training classes for athletes 12 years of age and up.