ReviewOrthopaedic journal of sports medicine2019
Effect of Oral Contraceptives on Soft Tissue Injury Risk, Soft Tissue Laxity, and Muscle Strength: A Systematic Review of the Literature.
Review in Orthopaedic journal of sports medicine, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
21 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 28 citations in OpenAlex.
- Beyond birth control: how oral contraceptives impact skeletal muscle health: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Journal of applied physiology (Bethesda, Md. : 1985) · 2026Pooled it
- The role of relaxin in anterior cruciate ligament injuries: a systematic review.European journal of orthopaedic surgery & traumatology : orthopedie traumatologie · 2023Pooled it
- The Effect of Monophasic Oral Contraceptives on Muscle Strength and Markers of Recovery After Exercise-Induced Muscle Damage: A Systematic Review.Sports health · 2023Pooled it
- Oral contraceptive use and anterior cruciate ligament injury or reconstruction in women: A systematic review and meta-analysis of very low-certainty evidence.Journal of experimental orthopaedics · 2026Review
- The Association Between Hormonal Contraceptives and Lower Extremity Injuries in Female Athletes With Sports-Related Clinical Encounters.Sports health · 2026Article
- Hormonal Contraceptive Use and Musculoskeletal Injury Risk in Female Athletes: A Prospective Cohort Study.Sports health · 2026Article
- Approach to sport-savvy contraceptive counselling for athletes.Canadian family physician Medecin de famille canadien · 2026Review
- An Overarching Conceptual Framework for Menstrual Health in Sport Research: Theory, Causality and Validation.Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2026Review
- Hip pain level variation in female femoroacetabular impingement syndrome patients in menstrual cycle.BMC musculoskeletal disorders · 2026Article
- Menstrual Cycle and Hormonal Contraceptives in Female Athletes: Should Symptoms and Nutrition Matter More than Cycle Phase? A Narrative Review.Nutrients · 2026Review
- Evaluating the Association Between Core Muscle Injury Symptom Pattern and Concomitant Femoroacetabular Impingement Syndrome.Orthopaedic journal of sports medicine · 2026Article
- Current Concepts in Pathogenesis and Conservative Management of Supraspinous Tendinopathies Using Shockwave Therapy-A Narrative Review of the Literature.Biomedicines · 2025Review
- Chronic nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug use is associated with increased risk of distal biceps tendon injury.JSES international · 2025Article
- Understanding ACL injuries in volleyball: a systematic review of epidemiology and risk factors.Frontiers in sports and active living · 2025Review
- Qualitative Comparison of Cultured Skin Microbiota From the Inguinal Region of Obese and Nonobese Patients Eligible for Hip Arthroplasty.Arthroplasty today · 2024Article
- Fatiguing exercise reduces cellular passive Young's modulus in human vastus lateralis muscle.Experimental physiology · 2024Article
- The Association Between Menstrual Cycle Phase, Menstrual Irregularities, Contraceptive Use and Musculoskeletal Injury Among Female Athletes: A Scoping Review.Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2024Article
- The hormonal profile in women using combined monophasic oral contraceptive pills varies across the pill cycle: a temporal analysis of serum endogenous and exogenous hormones using liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectroscopy.American journal of physiology. Endocrinology and metabolism · 2024Article
- Effects of orally administered hormonal contraceptives on the musculoskeletal system of healthy premenopausal women-A systematic review.Health science reports · 2022Review
- Role of relaxin in diastasis of the pubic symphysis peripartum.World journal of clinical cases · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundFemale patients are more likely than male patients to experience various musculoskeletal (MSK) injuries. Because MSK tissues are sensitive to the female hormones relaxin, estrogen, and progesterone, studies have examined whether hormonal contraceptives, which change female hormone levels, can alter the female MSK injury risk. These studies have reached contradictory conclusions, leaving unclear the influence of hormonal contraception on female MSK injury risk. HYPOTHESIS: Hormonal contraceptives act to decrease female soft tissue injury risk and soft tissue laxity. STUDY
designSystematic review; Level of evidence, 3.
methodsReviewers searched for clinically relevant studies evaluating the relationship between hormonal contraceptive use and soft tissue injuries, soft tissue laxity, muscle injuries, and muscle strength in the PubMed, Cochrane, Scopus, CINAHL, and Embase databases. Studies meeting inclusion criteria were scored by 2 independent researchers for risk of bias, imprecision, inconsistency, and indirectness with a template designed using the
resultsA total of 29 studies met inclusion criteria. Of the 7 studies evaluating oral contraceptive (OC) use and soft tissue injury risk, only 2 received a high quality-of-evidence score; all other studies received a very low score. The high-quality studies concluded that OC use decreases anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury risk. Only 1 of the 10 studies evaluating OC use and soft tissue laxity was found to have a high quality of evidence; this study determined that OC use decreases ACL laxity.
conclusionHigher quality studies suggest that OCs decrease a female patient's risk of ACL injuries and ACL laxity. The strength of these findings, however, is weak. Female patients are up to 8 times more likely to tear their ACLs than male patients. OCs may serve a therapeutic role in decreasing the sex disparity in ACL injury rates.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.