“The only way I can describe this is that it’s like grief. It’s like something has been ripped away.”

Fitzgerald played for years before identifying as a woman, I don't think the RFU's decision has removed that option for Fitzgerald.

But there is no way she'd be able to play competitively with a group of men in their 20s. She'd have to join a team in her age range. Also the showers would be less fun for her.

It’s amazing there isn’t some self awareness in terms of clearly being much much older than the other members of the team and wondering why it is that you can still compete at that age whereas other women can’t 🤨 The other women in their 50s just don’t try hard enough perhaps?

I do have some sympathy. Being trans cannot be easy. However the doctors / therapists who work with trans ppl need to explain to them that there is a cost to transitioning - you have to stop competitive sport. You won't have bathrooms, changing facilities, accommodation (e.g. hospitals, prisons...) that suit you.

But if the only way to save your self from catastrophic dysphoria and the risk of severe mental distress is to do this than you must understand that there are consequences and take support to adjust to those or do deal with the underlying cause for wanted to be a different sex. Instead they just say yes you have dysphoria and here is a bunch of life changing / endangering medication.

That's what's so good about the photos. There are no female players in their 50s there, are there? Wonder why.

In football both Ellen White and Jill Scott retired this week. They're in their 30s. I imagine they feel upset, but that's the nature of sport. You get to a certain age and your body just isn't what it was. All players go through it, and these people are lucky they got to play as long as they did by having access to the wrong category.

If being told you can't play on a particular rugby team is really the 'second worst day of your life' then you've lived a pretty cushy life.

I'd like to say also that a simpering 'how am I dangerous?' is a total red flag. All dangerous males insist they're perfectly safe and that you're the one with the problem if you suggest otherwise.

It’s all so disingenuous. Not getting to play on the team you want to is not the same as not being allowed to play at all.

My STBXH would like to play for his preferred premiership football team but he’ll have to stick with the local 5-a-side teams who actually want a 40-something man who isn’t as good at football as he imagines himself to be. And that’s fair enough. No one is stopping him from playing football; he just has to make the best of the opportunities available to him. Not whinge that it’s so unfair that he can’t just do exactly what he wants.

How many 54 year old women can still play full contact team sports with opponents, in some cases, who are 30 years younger than them? Childbirth, menopause and caring responsibilities (which still largely fall on women's shoulders) are 3 pretty big obstacles.

We’re grieving too. For our words, our rights, our privacy. Welcome to the club, mate.

Just made me angry. Really angry. Fucking entitled bastards, all of them. Sod off. Play in the men's teams because you're a fucking man and the rest of them are fucking men. Men, I tell you. Those that are not women. 😡

Fitzgerald, a proud trans woman, is mourning the loss of rugby.

Hmm loss? Fitzgerald played for years before identifying as a woman, I don't think the RFU's decision has removed that option for Fitzgerald.

The comments on blood test results are interesting. Fitzgerald quotes the upper limit for female haemoglobin correctly but then cites the lower level for men (138 g/L) as evidence that Fitzgerald's levels are way below female levels. The lower level for women is 121h/L and Fitzgerald's level is slightly below that but not way below.

WRT testosterone Fitzgerald is a medical miracle given that the best suppression which can be achieved in prostate cancer patients is 0.7 nmol/l. I would imagine an unrecordable testosterone level in a biological male would be of great interest to doctors.

Fitzgerald was also interviewed on Irish radio recently, following the IRFU decision to keep women's rugby female:

www.rte.ie/news/2022/0814/1315716-transgender-rugby-players/ (audio)

Why doesn't she play with the men then 🤷🏻‍♀️ or better yet!!!! Create a trans team!!! Go trans!!! 🏳️‍⚧️

Glad to see the trans person has things in perspective and is thinking about the team rather than only their own wants.

Doesn't come across as a deluded old fool at all.

Quite

Comments section says it all. Self absorbed deluded men wanting to play rugby with women half their age. A trans woman in their twenties would wipe women out, it is not equal.

The comments are robust.

Its like they think that some people are blind…and stupid