How Birth Control Can Impact Sports Injuries: Dara Mabrey’s Story

Introduction and Setting the Scene

Dara Mabrey

So I was bleeding from my bones and taking birth control. And like that's actually a recipe for disaster. And I think I took two birth control pills by the time they found the clot. And that's crazy because it's literally all it

Elizabeth Montavon

Today I'm joined by Dara Mabrey, a Notre Dame guard who was one of the top shooters in college basketball, finishing her career with over 300 made three-pointers and an ACC championship. After transferring from Virginia Tech and stepping into a leadership role with the Fighting Irish, she built a reputation for clutch performances and high on-court IQ.

Since graduating, she's taken her game internationally, playing professionally in countries like Hungary, Poland, Greece, and Australia, navigating the global basketball landscape in real time. And today's story really dives into the unplanned parts of her transition from college to pro ball and how her experiences have influenced the way injuries are understood and handled in pro women's sports. It's truly a one of a kind story that impacts all women athletes.

Dara, thank you so much for joining us on this very first episode of our show. Tell me a little bit about how you're doing and where you're at right now.

Dara Mabrey

I'm so excited to be here. First of all, thank you for having me. I'm currently in Southern Australia. So it's, we have a little bit of a time difference going on on this podcast, which is pretty cool, which we can get into about, you know, overseas and stuff. But yeah, I've been in Australia for three weeks. I'm loving it so far. And I'm pretty excited to see what's to come because I've only explored a little bit here, given it's only been a couple of weeks. But yeah, I'm here. I'm in Australia. And good morning, good evening to anybody that's watching this.

Elizabeth Montavon

Right, hello to all. And I love that you're in Australia, love that for you. Every time I've competed in Australia, it's just been an incredible trip. So, love that you're there and I think you have lot of exploring to do. But I have kept everybody on the edge of their seat on this show already and everybody wants to know from you, what is the story that no one's ever asked you about?

Facing Hardships in Sports

Dara Mabrey

I came from a basketball family where I essentially learned everything from. And I have two sisters also that have been a really big influence on me and have been in the spotlight most of their life. So yeah, a lot of people do like to talk about the similarities, but a big difference is that injury. Knock on wood, the three of us, like honestly, were never really sidelined. We came up really healthy. We were blessed throughout college to just have small, maybe lingering things or like an ankle sprain or something like that. And then I went through what… was honestly the lowest point of my life, like hit rock bottom. And it was very hard to relate to anybody, including my sisters during that time.

Elizabeth Montavon

Yeah, I could absolutely imagine. Do you want to talk us through that particular injury? I know what you're referring to, but our listeners certainly might not. Would you be willing to share that experience?

The Journey Through Injury

Dara Mabrey

Definitely. So senior year at Notre Dame, I used my fifth year to come back for COVID. So it was my last season of college basketball. was January of 2022, no, 23, sorry, 23. And I was going up for open, essentially an open layup. They actually called a foul, which is beside the point, because she didn't even foul me. But everyone was trying to figure out like if it was contact or not. If you know, know, unfortunately again, that it's usually non-contact. And I kind of just, like I said, was blessed with no injury before I started. I think the number was like, in the hundreds of me starting every single college basketball game and not missing one throughout the year. And I went up for an open layup and I just felt the bottom and the top of my leg essentially go in two different directions. And I was in an enormous amount of pain. So they thought maybe I did something with the MCL, which tends to be more painful for people watching this, the MCL is the inside of your knee.

And that hurts a lot more than just like tearing your ACL. And I went back to the table, the surgeon did the ACL test where they wiggle your leg and he was like, okay, yeah, it feels loose. And in that moment, like everything just kind of shut down for me. You never know, like usually you're watching it and you never know as a female athlete until it happens to you.

Like the feeling of disappointment because I was a senior my brain just went in every single direction like what's going to happen to me now? But then later that night I kept like standing whenever I would stand up. I was on the crutches because I couldn't wait there but whenever I would stand up I felt like I was like Gonna pass out and I would go dizzy and I would see dark and I was like that's that's weird. I've never heard of that like

We just thought it was an ACL and it was a Sunday night. So I was getting an MRI at like seven o'clock right away the next morning. And typically they tell you when you have an injury, a knee injury, depending on what they think it is, is to keep the leg straight overnight. So you don't damage anything going forward, like regarding having extension. I couldn't, like essentially if this was my leg, I just couldn't get it to there without feeling like I was going to pass out. So we got the MRI, gave the MRI back to the surgeon and the surgeon actually was like, this is wrong. Like this is the wrong patient. There has to be some sort of mistake. And his assistant was like, unfortunately, like there's no mistake. And so I had, I remember being in the football training room, which was not the women's basketball one because I had like four trainers around my bedside. Again, which speaks to the support system that I had at Notre Dame that we can get into after this.

And they were like, you have three tibial plateau fractures, an ACL avulsion, which means that my ACL didn't pop in half. It ripped off of the fractures. That's why I couldn't straighten my leg because I had fractures in there. And then they saw shadowing on the meniscus, but couldn't confirm if it was torn or not. And then two days later, so 48 hours passed, was supposed to have surgery in like 72 hours, basically. I got up, nearly passed out this time at practice, got rushed to the emergency room and I had a blood clot which took a turn for the worse because I couldn't have surgery. I had to let fractures heal essentially in the wrong place and like they were like we don't know what's gonna happen now like if we have to let fractures heal in the wrong place.

But bless my surgeon, like I had other doctors look at my report and they were like, hell no, I want nothing to do with that. And my surgeon was like, I'm gonna fix you up and you're gonna play again. And like from that moment on, like I saw the look in his eyes and he honestly gave me the only bit of hope that I felt over like that entire week. So the medicine was terrible. I was on injections for three weeks, like having to use needles on myself.

Just like a bad scenario, but I always tell people that it happened “for” me and not “to” me, because like it fixed me way beyond the basketball court, way beyond it. That's one thing I could take away from it, I can tell you that.

Elizabeth Montavon

Wow, your emotional maturity around all of that is so impressive. And there's so many, I have so many questions for you. Kind of first of all, going back more towards the beginning, since this is your first major injury, I'd love to know if you relate to this. I feel like as an athlete, I'm very aware of my body and little changes in my body, I notice them, right? So when you have this massive change and you, almost kind of “lose” your body. Now as an athlete, you're fully in your head. And living fully in your head after kind of getting to go back and forth between your head and your body, and I don't know, some athletes, the split is probably different, but now you're fully in your head, and like you said, your mind was racing in a million directions. This is your senior year. What are you going to do? What's next? What was that like for you really kind of losing your body for the first time?

The Impact of Injury on Identity

Dara Mabrey

Terrible, awful. And over the course, I felt like I was losing my body too, because if you know anything about injury, you fluctuate like crazy. So you don't work out, then you gain weight, and then you start working out again, and you drop everything it feels like. And I would honestly say, like it felt like an identity crisis. Everything you did, even it goes way beyond just looking at my body, everything I did was physical with my body obviously, and my mind, but like at one point I was laying in the bed and I was like what's productive now for me like do I do I become an A-plus student? I was a pretty damn good student at Notre Dame already but I was like do I become like an A-plus student and just put my nose in a textbook like what feels productive to me now and that's when like I found my body back in the little things when I put my mind to it first, so like my biggest thing over the injury was I did a million puzzles. I would sit there at night, I would light the candles, like make the hotel room that I was in, the handicap hotel room became like an oasis for me. So all the little things I did, like with my mind, got my body back. And now, like that's one of the bigger things that I did take, like in my career now is it's all up here and then your body will follow. But losing that and the identity crisis was terrible.

My gosh, I remember one day looking in the mirror on the crutches and I just started crying, let it all out because I was like, I don't recognize myself right now. Like who is that? Yeah. And if athletes, I feel like a lot of athletes, especially the upcoming generations, they don't know how important the mind is at all.

Elizabeth Montavon

It really, to me, sounds like your willingness and determination around that mind component and not letting that go awry and in fact keeping it sharp, that was almost, if not more important than this surgeon who was willing to take on what to them must have been an absolutely insane case. I mean, it absolutely baffles me that doctors turned you away, but I understand if somebody doesn't believe something is their skill set, okay, I can respect that.

But that one doctor who said, “no, we're gonna fix this and we're gonna make you better.” When you are an injured athlete and you have most likely no hope, at least it feels like in that moment, that one person who gives you just a sliver, a morsel of hope that everything is going to be okay is worth their weight in gold. So what was it like when you realized that you had this person who might be offering you a window to a better future than everything that your mind is telling you?

Dara Mabrey

It kind of, it grounded me in a time where I told you that my mind was all over the place and I was breathing really heavy.

It just took me honestly and went like this. And it didn't last long. I was laying down on the table, like looking up at him, I remember. And it wasn't just that moment. It was another moment, my athletic trainer that rehabbed me, she told me after in the Notre Dame football room, I remember she had the report in her hand.

And she looked at me like right in my eye and she was holding my hand and she was like, I would never lie to you. Your recovery is going to be awful. It's going to be terrible, but we're, we're going to get you back and I'm going to do everything I can for you. And I will never forget that the, what I went through with her also changed me forever because I've never had like a relationship like that with my athletic trainer and some of the awful, awful points of the recovery were I had to keep the legs straight for 8 to 12 weeks, which is typical for any bone to fully heal. Like when you keep going back to the x-ray and it gets less and less and less, I had to manually break the scar tissue in my knee after keeping it straight for 8 hours and that was the most painful thing I've ever gone through, like, I would go ghost pale sometimes, like I would get that real like metally taste in my mouth and she would always, like, she had, like, I told her she had angel hands. She always knew when to push me. She always knew when to shut it down because like, we had to clear out the training room every time because it sounded horrible. Like I was like, I don't want anyone to watch me go through this. And that's another thing, like being vulnerable and asking for help.

God, there's a million things that we could talk about about this injury. But yeah, her name's Anne Marquez and she ended up presenting my injury at the NBA Summer League in 2024 over the summer. And it's funny because she usually goes every year and there were people that went back to her and they were like, whatever happened to that girl? And she's still so proud to say like she healed and she went and played overseas. So she has a piece of my heart, Anne, yeah.

Blood Clots and Female Athlete Health

Elizabeth Montavon

Of course, of course. Now, I know part of why your injury has been studied is because this blood clot was a little bit of an anomaly for this type of injury and especially at your age. So can you talk us through how this blood clot came to be and what it means from your perspective for the future of young professional women athletes in your circumstances?

Dara Mabrey

Yeah, so at the time, I felt like this really bad pain in the back of my calf and I'm not a doctor, but I do know that typically they're either in your leg or in your lungs. And there were notes, like typical, if you look up symptoms, it's like really warm in the area or discoloration, like bruising.

And I didn't have either of those. I just had like an immense amount of pain in the back of my calf. But like the killer is that I was taking contraceptive. So I was on like some really low dose birth control pill and not knowing that, you know, like when you break your leg, the bones bleed a lot. So I was bleeding from my bones and taking birth control. And like that's actually a recipe for disaster. And I think I took two birth control pills by the time they found the clot. And that's crazy because it's literally all it takes, and they put me on blood thinners immediately. And after that I never have, and I still won't go back on birth control again, because the thought of it just scares me. And like, that's also another thing that injury did for me was give me this new perspective of a wholesome body. And I know birth control has its benefits, but like it scared the hell out of me. So me and birth control don't go together anymore. But in the bigger picture for female athletes that go down with an injury, especially like a major injury in any part of your body, it should now be checked early if they're taking birth control. Because if you don't know yet what they have, like especially fractures and any sort of bleeding, then the coming off the birth control and going on the typical dose, like the five milligram aspirin is like highly recommended now because of me, I think.

So again, like after we had, at Notre Dame, like three more that came after me. It was just a really hard year for our team. And it was one of the first things, are you taking birth control? And I think, honestly, thank God they found mine. And it could come down to saving lives. Like, because you just never know.

Elizabeth Montavon

The “Dara Mabrey protocol” is very real now in treating these injuries. I can say as an athlete that when I have taken birth control from health professionals, I've never gotten any direction around how it might impact potential injuries. And I'm gathering that you were never really informed of the same.

Dara Mabrey

Yeah, and I mean in their defense they had probably no idea that my knee looked like that, but

I don't know, even like the doctors were like, wow, we're amazed. And it gave me hope because although it sucked in the moment, I was like, if I can help other female athletes, then come on, like there's nothing better than that, you know? And it's, there's just something so wholesome about being a woman and having to look after your body extra because I know over the course of me rehabbing, I would always have questions. I wanted to know everything that I was doing and just learn more about my body. And it made me so in tune with myself in what I was doing. And this one therapist told me one time he was like, I was jumping off of a box. And it was when I was trying to do box jumps and land on one leg. And I still had like that half an inch where my knee would go in and then go out. And I would be like, I don't understand. Like I'm consciously trying to force it out and he literally was like at some point you got to give yourself grace in this because women's knees and hips were meant to bear children and not play basketball and that like completely changed my mindset, and I took no offense to it at all because I was like he's right. Like look what happens. It's another thing is that there's a lot of research on knee injuries with women when they're in their cycle and that was also the first question that they asked me. I actually wasn't in my cycle, but everybody else that I know that did it was in their cycle. Because our hips change and then it puts more pressure on our knees because our hips are open during our cycle.

Elizabeth Montavon

Yes, and I love that we're finally seeing teams and leagues take research into that more seriously in an effort to preserve their players, which makes sense. It is their greatest asset, right, as an athletic team or league. I would love to know from you, part of your legacy now in sports is the fact that you have in some ways prompted attention to or research into the overlap that comes between professional women athletes who are on contraception and the unfortunate circumstances of injury. I know this was not a planned part of your legacy and career, but what does it feel like to know that something terrible happened to you, your willingness to take it on head first, grow through it, get better, come out the other side, a better athlete, and then share your story - you have looked out for the future of all women athletes. What does that feel like?

Dara Mabrey

At first I almost felt like a victim. Like, why am I the one that has to go through this and all of that? And honestly now, I feel like a superwoman. Because if I can do it, then you can do it. There's no difference. And I personally don't think that there's enough research and enough backup behind something that happens all the time, not just in women's basketball. I mean, you've probably seen it for yourself a bunch too. Like in that area, I know it's super common. But it made me feel powerful and not "why me?" At first it was why me, because I was like, my God, this is terrible. And then when I heard it would just be people talking, even doctors that I encountered that found that really interesting and I took a lot from that. That was some random dermatologist that I went to. I was like, okay, like if I'm making people's lives better, even if it was like through my hardship, then I feel great. Cause you know, a lot of times like when you're an athlete, especially a student athlete, like at a prestigious university, you're exposed to helping people in other ways. That normally turns back to you being in the spotlight.

Like, we have this athlete here to coach or we have this star athlete here to influence children, which is amazing. I love the kids, but here's an athlete that went through a brutal injury and a lot of adversity that could actually help you and change your life essentially like in a split second. I thought that was a better feeling than anything else. Yeah.

Elizabeth Montavon

Yeah, you you never plan for the bad milestones in sports, right? When you're a little girl at night and you've got posters of your favorite athletes taped up on the wall and you're dreaming about your athletic career, you dream about the wins and the incredible moments, right? And you would never dream this up. And yet it became such a pivotal moment for you and it's changed all of sports.

Now that you are so far past it, and I know only more time is going to go by and you're only going to get, you know, bigger, better, faster, stronger, as we say in my sport. How do you see the game now? You're playing pro ball. What does it look like to you knowing what you know?

Resilience and Gratitude in Sports

Dara Mabrey

Yeah, I think it's definitely a real thing to say once an injured athlete comes back, you have an appreciation for the game like you never had before. And that is very true. But in the pros, it's still, I still learned more as the years go on. And I say as the years go on, I'm still in year two. I just finished year two in Greece. But one thing I do want to touch on is like, I got a little greedy.

At one point and I had to ground myself again where I was like, okay, my first year was in Hungary. I did very well. It went great. And then I was like, I love basketball and year one went so well. So now it has to keep going well from here. Like the thought process of I went through the most awful thing ever. So now everything from here has to be going up is not true because

I still wouldn't learn anything. So I found that throughout the process, I've still been through some adversity. No adversity will ever compare to that. But I think that's what it did for me. So I can still go through the adversity. I can still sulk sometimes. I can still have my bad days. But there's always that voice in my head that says, you literally prayed on your knees to be here. You ask God a million times, “please put me back on the basketball court. I don't care what it looks like, if it's not pretty, if I'm not the same, please put me back on that court in somehow or some way.” And believe it or not, like my body feels better than it did before I was injured. But having that thought in the back of my head, no matter what adversity I go through, like you prayed to be here, imagine if you couldn't, you know? That helps me. But it's not like, yes, it goes up when you're first coming back, but I wanna be so real and transparent on this podcast.

You're not just going to not hit adversity after that. And I kind of learned that and wanted to tell a couple people that I've talked to about injury. Like, yeah, it's glorious when you're first coming back and it's like, you're free. And I was like, year one, I'm just so happy to be here. I didn't care. I played so free. And then like year two, I started to put pressure on myself and I was like, okay, pressure is good because now you know, like you're here and you can do it and you have that thought. But you have to take pressure off of yourself. And that goes for anybody that's playing and not been injured.

Elizabeth Montavon

Absolutely. I think that your ability to recognize that the pressure was ultimately going to hold you back really speaks to the resilience you've developed over these past handful of years now. The resilience, but also your willingness to jump into gratitude, gratitude for the sport, gratitude for your journey. I've always experienced that I compete my best when I'm coming from a place of gratitude. And I know that it can be hard to get there when you're living in adversity. But I think that's a great message for athletes of all sports.

Dara Mabrey

Definitely, agree, gratitude. honestly being happy that you still have the ability to do what you love. And as soon as you kind of switch your mindset, I feel like it takes pressure off of you. And I think that's big with, honestly, kids growing up. And I think the influence, that could really help. Once they understand gratitude, you're doing something that a lot of people actually would love to do, capable or incapable, you know?

Future Aspirations and Current Journey

Elizabeth Montavon

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, that's why professional female athletes make such great role models for young fans is because we go through these experiences and are willing to process them out loud faster than a lot of athletes, than other athletes might be. And I think that really lends to the fact that, you know, young fans, especially Gen Z, really care about athletes like you and me.

Well, kind of to tie it up, I would love to know, what's on the horizon for you? Let's talk a little bit about the future. Where are you playing next? Or are you in a transition period? Tell me a little bit more.

Dara Mabrey

Definitely. Okay, so like a little transition, a little like still playing. So I did enter my name in the draft when I got hurt. Obviously didn't get drafted. So the end goal, obviously for me and a lot of other women's basketball players is to make it to the WNBA. And I was in Hungary my first year and that was great. I had a great experience. I got used to the speed and the physicality of the game, which was great. I definitely had a few like coming-to-God moments in those games. And then I went to Greece this past year and Greece was amazing. I learned a lot about myself. Like I said, kind of like year one is great. I'm just so happy to be here, you know? And year two, I learned so much. So super thankful for my journey in Greece. Now, like this is all while actively still trying to get an opportunity in America.

I'm in Australia now playing in NBL1; it's about to be their winter here, but it's like a summer league and it's fun. I'm really new to it. So I don't have a lot to say yet besides like I have enjoyed it. The pace of the game is fast and my teammates are super cool. And obviously the lifestyle in Australia is amazing. And then I don't know, it's early now for next year. I have an agent/manager, a lot of people over here call it manager. This podcast is audience friendly. So yeah, we're working on opportunities for next season. I'm excited. The fun part about being over here is it could change in a split second. Like you could be going to one country one day and then three days later you could be going somewhere on the other side of the map. But yeah, that's my life right now. I've been setting goals. The off season is really nice because you have like all the time to just completely focus on yourself.

So I've been in the gym a lot, drinking a lot of coffee, and just trying to remain where I am while still, you know, like, it's good to be excited about what's to come next.

Elizabeth Montavon

I love this journey that you're on now, and I love that you're leaning into all of the nuances of it. When I travel to compete, we have an international tour as well, and on the one hand it can feel like, my god, I'm so out of my routine and it's so hard to be good when I'm not in my norm, but that is the beauty of it, is you're not in your norm. You have the privilege of going to all these incredible places and doing a sport you love. And so I love that you recognize all of that.

You're really in the journey and it's so cool to hear about. Before we wrap up, I need to take us to a segment called The Last Lap. So the premise of this segment is sports trivia, if you will. So Dara, if you, Dara Mabrey were the answer to a sports trivia question, what would you like that sports trivia question to be?

Dara Mabrey

That's such a good question. My gosh, that's such a good question. You might stump me on this. What would I be the answer for? You could say like “name one player that screams like contagious energy and is super passionate,” you should say me.

Elizabeth Montavon

That's so wholesome. What athlete has contagious energy and is super passionate? Your answer is Dara Mabrey, I love that.

Well, Dara, it was an absolute pleasure to have you on the show.

Dara Mabrey

Thank you so much.