Tendons play fundamental roles in the execution of human movement and therefore understanding tendon function, health and disease is important for everyday living and sports performance. The acute mechanical behavioural and physiological responses to short-term loading of tendons, as well as more chronic morphological and mechanical adaptations to longer term loading, differ between sexes. This has led some researchers to speculate that there may be a sex-specific injury risk in tendons. However, the link between anatomical, physiological and biomechanical sex-specific differences in tendons and their contributory role in the development of tendon disease injuries has not been critically evaluated. This review outlines the evidence surrounding the sex-specific physiological and biomechanical responses and adaptations to loading and discusses how this evidence compares to clinical evidence on tendon injuries and rehabilitation in the Achilles and patellar tendons in humans. Using the evidence available in both sports science and medicine, this may provide a more holistic understanding to improve our ability to enhance human tendon health and performance in both sexes.

肌腱在人体运动中起着重要作用，因此了解肌腱的功能、健康和疾病对于日常生活和运动表现非常重要。对肌腱短期负荷的急性机械行为和生理反应，以及对长期负荷的更慢性形态和机械适应，因性别而异。这导致一些研究人员推测肌腱可能存在性别特异性损伤风险。然而，肌腱的解剖学、生理学和生物力学性别特异性差异之间的联系及其在肌腱疾病损伤发展中的促成作用尚未得到严格评估。本综述概述了围绕性别特异性生理和生物力学反应和对负荷的适应的证据，并讨论了这些证据与人类跟腱和髌腱肌腱损伤和康复的临床证据的比较。利用运动科学和医学中可用的证据，这可能会提供更全面的理解，以提高我们增强人类肌腱健康和性能的能力。