Women Have Tendons… and Tendinopathy: Gender Bias is a “Gender Void” in Sports Medicine with a Lack of Women Data on Patellar Tendinopathy—A Systematic Review

Abstract

Introduction Patellar tendinopathy is one of the most common musculoskeletal problems associated with sport. While commonly perceived as a predominantly male problem, recent epidemiological studies revealed that it also affects a large number of sport-active women. The aim of this systematic review was to understand how the available treatments apply to women affected by patellar tendinopathy. Methods We analysed the available literature with a systematic review on three databases (PubMed, Cochrane, Web of Science) on February 2021, retrieving a total of 136 studies published from 1983. Results The overall scientific field offers an astonishingly low number of data on treatment results referring to only 78 women (2%) in the entire literature. Only 5% of the retrieved articles considered focusing only or mostly on men to be a limitation. Conclusions Women represent only a minority of patients studied for this topic. The few documented cases are further fragmented by being related to different treatments, thus basically offering no solid evidence for results and limitations of any therapeutic approach in women. This literature analysis showed a greater gender gap than what is recognized in science and general medicine; it showed a gender blindness in sports medicine when investigating a common problem like patellar tendinopathy.

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