When Faith Comas started wrestling in high school, she was one of just two girls on her team. The 18-year-old Cicero teen, who has dreams of wrestling in college, said that often meant everyone supporting her through her sport –– teammates, coaches and trainers –– was male. “When I got hurt a couple years ago, we had a male physical therapist, and he was really lax about it,” Comas said.
“He just told me I’m ‘good to go.’ Having an environment for women would’ve been a lot more comfortable and better for healing the injury long term.” Dr.
Mary Mulcahey, director of sports medicine and an orthopedic surgeon at Loyola Medicine, said stories like Faith’s were what inspired her to help launch a new program to provide health care for female athletes. Loyola’s new Women’s Sports Medicine program aims to educate women on the risks of sports injuries while offering gender-specific care, she said. “The main impetus or idea behind this is that there are certain injuries that are more common or unique to female athletes, so the program really focuses on having a group that has expertise in treating these conditions and is aware of some of the nuances and differences with treating female athletes,” Mulcahey said.
Mulcahey said that the program will utilize a network of physicians including primary care, sports medicine, orthopedic medicine, endocrinology, urogynecology, sports, cardiology, and obstetrics and gynecology, along with physical therapists and.
