Doctor Podcast sits down with Marci A. Goolsby, MD, primary care sports medicine physician and medical director of the Women Sports Medicine Center (WSMC) at HSS to discuss women's sports and ways for female athletes to stay healthy and protect themselves from injury. 

Dr. Goolsby specializes in the non surgical treatment of bone stress fractures and overuse injuries. “I think the most important thing for stress fractures is figuring out why it happened so trying to address any of those risk factors. I ask my patients about their training and what changes there have been, what kind of shoes they wear, do they have low vitamin D, are they a vegetarian, do they have history of an eating disorder or menstrual issues?  A lot of it is activity modification. If it hurts, don't do it,” explained Dr. Goolsby. 

Dr. Goolsby discussed the importance of proper nutrition and creating the right culture and messaging about the importance of appropriately refueling for their sport. I use my sports nutritionists and sports psychologists a lot. It's really a team. 

“A lot of it is education and making sure people understand not getting your period might be common, but it isn't normal. The implications of that on various systems, but usually the bones are the ones that are front and center because they are at increased risk of getting stress fractures and early osteoporosis.”

Dr. Goolsby discussed the prevalence of ACL injuries especially in female athletes. “ACL injury prevention is very important for females in particular. We have a lot of injury prevention programs set up at HSS and even have an app to keep people engaged in ACL injury prevention,” said Dr. Goolsby. 

Watch the full interview at youtube.com.