"Concussions and girls"

I was catching up on the past few days of CNN's Paging Dr. Gupta blog and today's entry caught my attention. "Concussions and girls" posted by Sharhreen Abedin dissects a recent study by the Journal of Athletic Training looking at high school athletic participation and frequency of concussions. What did they find? Girls suffer from more of them than boys. It's definitely worth a read, but this is the part that made me think:

What I find even more intriguing are the possible explanations behind the surprising stats. On one hand, researchers point to biophysical phenomena - for instance, the fact that boys have stronger neck muscles and larger heads than girls, so they can tolerate stronger blows.

But there is also a sociocultural explanation: The suspicion that girls tend to report their concussion symptoms more than boys, and boys hold back when they may be feeling a bit dizzy or nauseated because they want to be tough and keep playing, despite the potential long-term dangers of getting hit again too soon. (By the way, those possible dangers are no joke: repeated concussions can lead to long-term loss of cognitive function and memory loss.) And as far as returning to the field - coaches, athletic trainers and parents tend to be more cautious about letting girls back on to the court or field, more so than with their male counterparts.

So what is it? Are girls just not quite tough enough, or are boys too stubborn? I think it's not a boy v. girl matter, but a tough athlete v. sub-par one. I'll agree that society might "coddle" female competitors more than boys, but I refuse to accept the other explanation (that female athletes are crybaby's). As a former Division I athlete, I have my teammates bite their lips as their fight through everything from breaks to tears, concussions to dislocations just so they can stay on the field. I had a teammate (2 concussions deep) lie through a physical so she could get back out on the field (only to get another concussion). I'll accept that maybe biologically boys have a leg up, but I know that young women are just as tough (and stubborn) as any male athlete I have ever met.