There’s something wrong with the brain banks created to study the dangers of repeated trauma to the head: Almost all the brains donated so far belonged to men.
It’s just one example of how the study of brain trauma in women lags behind — even though women get concussions at higher rates than men in many sports and may suffer more severe and persistent symptoms.
“If concussion is the invisible injury, then females are the invisible population within that injury,” said Katherine Snedaker, a licensed clinical social worker from Norwalk, Conn., who founded the nonprofit PINK Concussions in 2013 to focus attention on the issue.
