Females Heal More Quickly than Males after Muscle Injuries, finds research

Females may begin to recover twice as fast as males when it comes to muscle injuries, according to a new study in mice. The findings support the idea of forming individualized treatment plans based on a person’s biological sex. The research will be presented at the 2024 Integrative Physiology of Exercise conference, Nov. 20–22, in State College, Pennsylvania.

Muscle injuries affect more than 65 million people each year in the U.S. Severe muscle injuries can leave people with a less than 100% recovery rate. Personalized medicine could help the recovery process based on the amount of inflammation and the development of scar tissue (fibrosis) that occurs during a person’s healing. A new study explored the possibility that inflammation and fibrosis levels are dependent on biological sex.

Researchers looked at muscle function repair in the calf muscle of male and female mice. This included the ability of the muscle to contract and produce force as well as muscle fatigue, inflammation and fibrosis. The female mice had significant improvement in force production and contraction compared to the males and healed 50% to 60% faster than the males in these areas. The females showed less inflammation and fibrosis overall, with sex hormones potentially playing a role in muscle repair, the research team explained.

“By understanding the difference between males and females in the healing process, medical professionals can give personalized treatment plans,” study authors Matthew Kostek, PhD, and Siyu Liu, said in a statement. “Based on the healing process difference in the time course, exercise treatment could begin earlier or be more intense in one [sex] or may have more benefits in one sex.”