Advil is not just a pill to women athletes, it is equipment. Search the bag of any woman athlete and you will find a bottle or a few pills, tucked away for some future moment of dire need. Whether it gets used for cramps or bangs or strains, it is part of the basic women’s sports toolkit. Coaches buy the really big bottles and put them in their ball bags, they bring them to practices along side the water bottles and band Aids. A few months ago the doctors told me I was different than other women I knew. I had become allergic to Advil. The little pill was no longer my friend, in fact, it would only hurt me worse and worse, and I was to stop taking it.
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