Foot and Ankle Stress Fractures Affect Women More Than Men

Studies show women are more likely than men to get foot and ankle stress fractures. They’re painful and can certainly slow down your active life.

Natalia Jarvis, 28, spent the first half of 2024 logging miles. After two marathons and a trail ultra-marathon, something wasn’t right.

“I woke up and I could barely walk down the stairs because it was just very painful and sore, so I took myself to urgent care,” Jarvis said.

That was in early July. Soon after, Jarvis met with Rebecca A. Cerrato, M.D., FAAOS, orthopedic surgeon at The Institute for Foot and Ankle Reconstruction at Mercy.

“When we saw her, X-rays looked fine,” said Dr. Cerrato, the fellowship director at the Institute. “But when I put my finger right on the area of the fibula, which is the classic area where you get pain, that was not comfortable to her.”

The diagnosis was a stress fracture of her fibula, which is repetitive micro trauma to the bone.

According to Dr. Cerrato, she usually sees two types of women with this injury.

“These are usually elite athletes. They're usually underweight. They have menstrual dysfunction. So, oftentimes, they don’t have their menses normally, and that affects their bone density,” Dr. Cerrato said.

The other group “tends to be our patients who are postmenopausal women. And so, the bone density just naturally, for some, starts to just go down, and it can be affected by vitamin D, which they're not even aware of,” Dr. Cerrato said.

First, patients have to stop doing what makes the injury hurt. Then, it’s probably a boot for a few weeks, and then reintroducing activity.

“I’ve graduated to doing incline walks, so I can finally walk but I still can’t run,” Jarvis said.

While Jarvis isn’t quite sprinting down the streets just yet, she has big goals with races planned all fall. However, she’s taking it one step at a time in her recovery to get back to full health.

View Mercy orthopedic surgeon Dr. Rebecca Cerrato’s interview regarding foot and ankle stress fractures in women.