Break it down for me?

[TortiousTortoise]

Hi all, I am fairly new to the discussion on the impact that transwomen are having on women generally and I want to more fully understand the issues (been trying to talk to my husband about it and am struggling to articulate it).

I feel so awkward writing about this as I definitely don't want to come across as sounding horrible about transpeople, I just want to understand.

Also there are a lot of acronyms being thrown about. Can anyone help me out?

[Helleofabore]

Another male lactation paper

A recent case study.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s13006-024-00624-1

Case presentation
In this case a 37-year-old transgender woman, who was under the care of the centre of expertise on gender dysphoria in Amsterdam, and in 2020 started lactation induction because she had the wish to breastfeed her future infant. She was in a relationship with a cisgender woman and had been using gender affirming hormone therapy for 13 years. Prior to initiating gender affirming hormone therapy she had cryopreserved her semen. Her partner conceived through Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection, using our patient’s cryopreserved sperm.

To induce lactation, we implemented a hormone-regimen to mimic pregnancy, using estradiol and progesterone, and a galactogogue; domperidone. Our patient started pumping during treatment. Dosage of progesterone and estradiol were significantly decreased approximately one month before childbirth to mimic delivery and pumping was increased. Our patient started lactating and although the production of milk was low, it was sufficient for supplementary feeding and a positive experience for our patient.

Two weeks after birth, lactation induction was discontinued due to suckling problems of the infant and low milk production.

Conclusions

This case report underlined that lactation induction protocols commonly used for cisgender women are also effective in transgender women. However, the amount of milk produced may not be sufficient for exclusive nursing.

Nevertheless, success of induced lactation may be attributed to its importance for parent-infant bonding, rather than the possibility of exclusive chestfeeding.

[LifeInAHamsterWheel]

Thanks @Helleofabore - talk about a case of wanting to have your cake and eat it.

Whatever about being 'able' to produce some amount of milk, I'm so concerned about the quality of the milk itself. Is it safe for infants to consume? It feels like we're using babies as test cases, surely that's not right

[Helleofabore]

This is a good wrap up of where the campaign for female sports is at the moment. It provides top level counter arguments for many of those we see on threads. It also provides some up to date reference links.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/sms.14581

The International Olympic Committee framework on fairness, inclusion and nondiscrimination on the basis of gender identity and sex variations does not protect fairness for female athletes


Tommy R. Lundberg, Ross Tucker, Kerry McGawley, Alun G. Williams, Grégoire P. Millet, Øyvind Sandbakk, Glyn Howatson, Gregory A. Brown, Lara A. Carlson, Sarah Chantler, Mark A. Chen, Shane M. Heffernan, Neil Heron, Christopher Kirk, Marie H. Murphy, Noel Pollock, Jamie Pringle, Andrew Richardson, Jordan Santos-Concejero, Georgina K. Stebbings, Ask Vest Christiansen, Stuart M. Phillips, Cathy Devine, Carwyn Jones, Jon Pike, Emma N. Hilton

Perspectives:

The IOC framework on fairness, inclusion and nondiscrimination on the basis of gender identity and sex variations is misaligned with current scientific and medical evidence and offers insufficient protection of fair competition for female athletes within a female category. Also, it does not adequately engage female athletes, who are primary stakeholders in their sport. Male pubertal development results in large performance advantages in athletic sports, which necessitates a female category that excludes male advantages, to ensure equal opportunity through fair competition for female athletes at all levels of sport. There is currently no evidence that testosterone suppression in transgender women can reverse male development and negate male advantages. In contrast, there is convincing evidence that the male advantage persists even when testosterone is suppressed. As a result, sports face the uncomfortable reality that the inclusion of transgender women in female sports categories cannot be reconciled with fairness, and in some instances safety, for females in athletic sports. The IOC must reconsider its framework and revise the 10 principles to reflect scientific evidence and fundamental principles of fair competition. We also recommend implementing a system to enable female stakeholders to be consulted in this matter and to have their voices heard, recognized, and valued.

It also has this:

“In adulthood, circulating testosterone concentrations do not come close to overlapping between females (0.1–1.7 nmol/L) and males (7.7–29.4 nmol/L).”

[FiniteSagacity]

@LifeInAHamsterWheel I don’t like to use up space here but definitely question if this ‘does no harm’ and why they’re experimenting on infants… ‘just because you can, doesn’t mean you should’.