March 27, 2026

Beyond the ACL: What Every Female Athlete Needs to Hear

By Lylah Ruparel

I recently had the chance to sit down with a physician assistant who has dedicated her entire career to female athlete health — and honestly, this conversation gave me so much to think about. She specializes in gymnastics medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital, and everything she shared felt relevant not just to me, but to every girl on every team I know.

We talked about injury prevention, recovery, and the very real barriers that keep young female athletes from getting the care they deserve. Here’s what stood out most — and what I think every athlete and every parent needs to know.

The Basics Are More Powerful Than You Think

We spent a lot of time on what she called the “fundamentals” of athlete health: sleep, hydration, nutrition, stress management, and menstrual tracking. I’ll be honest — when I first heard the list, it almost felt overwhelming. But she made a really important point: most of these things are actually realistic to implement on your own, without needing a whole medical team around you.

💧 Hydration — No excuses here. Drinking enough water is one of the simplest performance tools you have.

🌙 Sleep — Harder to manage in high school and college, but genuinely one of the most important recovery tools available.

🥗 Nutrition — Access matters. She acknowledged that not every athlete has the same support. Meeting yourself where you are is the goal.

📅 Period Tracking — So many athletes say “I have a regular cycle” — and then can’t remember when their last one was. Track it. It tells you more than you realize!

Her message was clear: you don’t need access to cutting-edge technology to start protecting your body. Start with what’s already in your hands.

Getting Care to Athletes Who Need It Most

One of the things I’ve been researching for HERcovery is the gap between what we know works in sports medicine and what athletes can actually access — especially in under-resourced environments. When I brought this up, she was thoughtful and direct.

The biggest barriers, she said, are money and time. Female athlete research is still underfunded compared to male sports, largely because male sports have historically generated more revenue. But that’s changing. The growth in women’s sports right now — the WNBA, women’s soccer, the surge in viewership and participation — is starting to push more funding toward female-focused research. We’re not there yet, but the trajectory is real.

The two-part challenge she described really stuck with me: first, getting a multidisciplinary care team to athletes, and second, making sure those athletes actually trust the system enough to use it. Buy-in matters. Education matters. And that’s exactly why I started HERcovery.

A Trailblazer You Should Know

She introduced me to someone I immediately looked up after our conversation:

Dr. Kate Ackerman, a founder of the WHSP Medical and extremely dedicated to female athlete health. She’s doing cutting-edge research on injury prevention and speaks widely on the topic. If you’re interested in female athlete medicine, or want to see what comprehensive female athlete care can look like, she’s the person to follow.

From Gymnast to PA: Her Path

Something I always love about these conversations is hearing how people found their way into their work. For her, it started with her own gymnastics injuries — and the orthopedic surgeons, PAs, athletic trainers, and physical therapists who helped her recover. Her mom suggested she shadow all of them. She did. And that curiosity never stopped.

She went on to earn a degree in athletic training, a PA master’s degree, and eventually a doctorate in research. But what I found most inspiring was what happened in between: working at Boston Children’s, she noticed that young gymnasts kept coming in and asking specifically for her. Out of that, she helped develop gymnastics medicine as a subspecialty — filling a gap that didn’t have a name yet.

That’s the kind of “see a gap, fill it” energy that HERcovery runs on.

What This Means for Us

The more I dig into this work — the research, the conversations, the real stories from athletes going through injury and recovery — the more I believe that information is one of the most powerful things we can give young female athletes. Not just about ACLs or orthotics or surgery timelines. But about their cycles, their sleep, their stress levels, their nutrition.

The research exists. The experts exist. The care models exist. What too many athletes are missing is the bridge — the accessible, relatable, athlete-to-athlete conversation that says: this matters, and here’s what to do about it.

That’s what HERcovery is here to be.

If you relate to this, share it with a teammate, a parent, a coach. And if you’re a female athlete navigating injury right now — you’re not alone, and you deserve a full team in your corner!

Sources & Further Reading

• Myer, Gregory D., et al. "Neuromuscular Training Improves Performance and Lower-Extremity Biomechanics Associated with ACL Injury." Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, vol. 19, no. 1, 2005, pp. 51–60.

• Hewett, Timothy E., et al. "Biomechanical Measures of Neuromuscular Control and Valgus Loading of the Knee Predict ACL Injury Risk in Female Athletes." The American Journal of Sports Medicine, vol. 33, no. 4, 2005, pp. 492–501.

• Mountjoy, Margo, et al. "The IOC Consensus Statement: Beyond the Female Athlete Triad — Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport." British Journal of Sports Medicine, vol. 48, no. 7, 2014, pp. 491–497.

• Bruinvels, Georgie, et al. "The Prevalence and Impact of Heavy Menstrual Bleeding Among Women Participating in Sport and Exercise." PLOS ONE, vol. 11, no. 5, 2016.

• Ackerman, Kathryn E., and Madhusmita Misra. "Bone Health and the Female Athlete Triad in Adolescent Athletes." The Physician and Sportsmedicine, vol. 39, no. 1, 2011, pp. 131–141.