Transgender and sports

Transsexual women on HRT for more than 2 years have the same levels of testosterone that cis women do. These trans women also often have lower levels of total and calculated free testosterone (both < 0.001) than ovulating women, the peak of the hormone cycle.

The IOC which is the deciding body for the Olympics tested trans women and their body mass/muscle mass extensively before making the decision to accept them as physically women. Muscle mass decreases on HRT, bones become less dense, skin thins and softens.

The governing body of MMA, as well as medical boards of the LPGA, The IOC (Olympics), MMA, WNBA, the NCAA, and actual doctors everywhere say the same thing. Hormone therapy for any significant length of time, especially coupled with gonadectomy eliminate any natural "male" muscle mass and any advantage it may provide. All allow trans women to compete as women.

Most of the organizations that allow trans women to compete as women test many things (including testosterone, both free and bound) and have stringent requirements regarding length of time on HRT and a gonadectomy.

There is no bone shape, bone density, height, weight, or center of balance that a man could have that a woman couldn't also have. There are 3.6 billion ways to be a woman on this planet, there is ample room for significant variation.

Fallon Fox is 5' 7", hardly huge and in fact only three inches over the "average" height for women in the US. Here she is with her last opponent who is visibly larger than her http://imgur.com/a/54TIc

If she were huge it wouldn't matter, as the IOC has already allowed a man named Antonio Silva to fight, who has the condition of Acromegaly (a form of gigantism) Shown here with a much smaller opponent http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ZX8tq6Zhd4c/TVaunsGsI4I/AAAAAAAAA6A/t6xygV1Q68U/s1600/002_Fedor_Emelianenko_and_Antonio_Silva.jpg .

The arguments of muscle mass, bone density, and overall strength already fall under the "handled by hrt" category, feel free to go read the science on that one. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hormone_replacement_therapy_(male-to-female)

There are a number of conditions that would induce high ranges of testosterone (free and bound), these women are not barred from women's sports. -footnote-These women often take the same testosterone suppressing medication (anti-androgens) that are taken by trans women.

A thought exercise, if you believe Fallon Fox should only compete with males, would you find it appropriate for a Trans man fighter on HRT as being able to only fight women? If not, Why?

If you believe this is a matter of "genetics" please understand that XX and XY otherwise known as the "sex chromosomes" aren't even where the genetic information dictating physical sex are primarily expressed.

Conditions exist in which people with XX chromosomes naturally develop physiologically male bodies and vice versa (XY develop female bodies). There is even a case of an XY mother giving birth to an XY daughter.

For the "genitally focused" group (penis=man, vagina=woman), we are all phenomenologically female to start with until testosterone is introduced during fetal development

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/multimedia/videos/We-Were-All-Female-Once.html

I'm not a molecular biologist or a doctor but from what I understand we share the same genital structure in both fetal males and fetal females until the SRY on the Y chromasome causes the creation of enzymes called transcription factors, which promote the expression of various other genes that lead to a masculinized phenotype. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SRY No enzymes introduced due to not possessing SRY or other reasons, and the female phenotype develops , so I think it's fair to describe it as the default setting.

In the end a clit is a just little penis, and a penis is really just a big clit. Besides hormones and the effect they have on different stages of development, there is very little physiological difference between men and women. All the pieces are the same, just adapted by hormones here and there.

If one would argue that transsexuality is simply a psychological condition, please watch this Stanford lecture from an accomplished nuerobiologist

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=A3C4ZJ7HyuE

Besides all of this being factual and not what a few internet people think, but what actual medical science (and law!) thinks (please someone invite R/skeptic), this is all important to consider just on the effect that widespread anti trans sentiment and transphobia has in the world today

49 per cent of transgender people attempt suicide (mostly due to the unavailability of transitional treatment, or being exiled from their family and social framework because of rampant anti trans sentiment)
Transgender youth account for 18 per cent of homeless people in cities such as Chicago, but researchers estimate fewer than 1 in 1,000 people is transgender.
265 trans people have been murdered worldwide in the last 12 months.
In the US Transgender women made up 40% of the 30 reported hate murders in 2011, while representing only 10% of total violence survivors and victims. This was comparable to last year’s report where transgender women made up 44% of the 27 reported hate murders, reflecting a two-year trend toward disproportional and severe violence faced by transgender women.
Transgender youth whose parents pressure them to conform to their anatomical gender report higher levels of depression, illegal drug use, suicide attempts and unsafe sex than peers who receive little or no pressure from parents.

And for all those who think people go around regretting transitioning and shouldn't be able to decide their own gender- Less than 1 to 1.5 per cent of individuals experience persistent regret after sex-reassignment surgery.

Besides "It just feels wrong", an argument with which I have no traction and am unlikely to gain any on, I can't imagine what else people think could possibly bar this awesome fighter from continuing to do what she loves.

I know that "she used to be a MAN" seems to be enough for some people, short sighted as that is. Once upon a time, she used to be a baby, something that I'm fairly sure is barred from competing in most major sports at the professional level. I'm expecting a bit of backlash on this post, but what can I say, I get it. Haters gonna hate.

Trans people participating in professional athletic competitions is not uncharted territory; guidelines do exist for when and how someone who has transitioned can compete. Genes are not particularly relevant here. Hormones are.

Hormone therapy removes any advantage testosterone might have previously given a trans woman. The International Olympic Committee's rules have three requirements for trans athletes to compete with members of the same gender:

They must have had gender reassignment surgery
They must have legal recognition of their assigned gender
They must have at least two years of hormone therapy

These rules aren't perfect. If an athlete's country refuses to issue updated legal ID they're out of luck, even though that doesn't affect athletic ability. And "gender reassignment surgery" is both an ambiguous term, and doesn't really affect any body parts typically involved in the competitions.

But still, even the Olympics recognize that trans women (and these arguments are always about trans women competing as women, never trans men competing as men) belong on the women's teams.

kneemos wrote: »

It's simple,men are stronger than women it doesn't change if they've had a sex change,it's PC and fear of offending anybody gone crazy.

kneemos wrote: »

Does it reduce bone structure and muscle mass.

Keno 92 wrote: »

When are the men turned women allowed to compete against women though? Can a man just say he feels he is a woman and compete or is surgery and estrogen treatments compulsory?

pablohoney87 wrote: »

I dont think you should have to back up a claim that generally men are stronger than women?