Sports endanger women's knees.

Physiologic differences may cause female athletes to have more knee injuries than males, indicates Edward M. Wojtys, an orthopedic surgeon at Medsport, a division of the University of Michigan's Orthopaedic Surgery Department. A study found that women athletes have more knee laxity, lower levels of muscle strength and endurance, and different muscle reaction time. These factors could be responsible for injury to the knee, especially the anterior cruciate ligament.

Dynamic stress tests revealed that females rely more on their quadriceps for knee stabilization during sports, compared to male athletes and nonathletic men and women, who first use the...