Tanya, I'm sorry about your blowout -- that stinks!!! This is a great question. I have two ideas. First is that if your joints are swollen or tender, that might affect your movements while skiing - or crashing -- so that something might be just enough "off" to trigger a fall that would lead to blowout. Similar to the way you'd feel on the third day after skiing hard for a couple of days. Second is that it could be related to hormonal fluctuation of your monthly cycle. There is evidence for this. There are a number of studies (I don't know them first hand, just know that they are out there) that have shown that female athletes are more prone to knee blowouts -- serious ACL/MCL combos like yours -- at particular points during their menstrual cycle. It has to do with hormone fluctuation -- specifically the hormone that is meant to loosen a woman's hips late in pregnancy, to make room for the baby to pass through the birth canal. Levels of that hormone change during the month even when a woman is NOT pregnant, and even though it helps with pelvic flexibility in birth, it doesn't know how to choose *only* those joints. This is the hormone that has been shown to increase the risk of knee blowouts in women *at particular points in their cycle*. In the end, did the Dostinex "cause" this? Probably not. It could absolutely be related if it normalized your monthly cycle hormones so that you would have the same risk of a hormonally-related blowout that any other woman would. Having high prolactin throws the whole cycle out of whack in one way or another -- some women have no periods at all, others have random bleeding, and still others have regular periods but do not ovulate (me). It is possible that having your homones out of whack before Dostinex may have protected you from this kind of injury in the past. Your othopedic surgeon(s) should know about the hormonal/cycle factor -- it's something that has been studied in the past several years -- so it's worth asking them about this. It could also be both together! Good luck with your surgery -- I know it's no picnic. | 