Trans athletes research - Brighton

[onlypans]

Does anyone know anything about this? The university are apparently conducting research into the effects of hormone therapy on athletic ability in trans athletes.

The person I spoke to about this said that indications were that the data suggests hormone consumption completely negates any advantages that come from being male. I'm thinking, surely not? Participants in the study were doing activities last week, how can the researchers have run all the data already?

Also, I don't know who is funding the research and whether or not they have an agenda one way or another. The trans person who was telling me about it (I am a secret terf because I'm not brave enough to potentially lose my job) was very happy with what they'd been told and it made me question if the research could be biased towards gender ideology/denial of sex.

Naw.

I suspect that’s where the line is because it allows for XY DSD people with a female phenotype to compete (eg those born with CAIS). These are children who look entirely female from birth and usually only find out that they have XY chromosomes around the age of 16 when they are taken to the doctor for investigations as to why no Menarche has occurred.

There was some data that suggested athletes with CAIS might have an advantage but it’s flawed and DSD athletes such as Duttee Chand clearly have a very different developmental pathway compared to DSD athletes such as Caster Semenya (who has had a male puberty). Obvs there is a practical advantage in no menstrual cycle/contraception/pregnancy issues to affect training schedules but that’s offset somewhat by needing to manage DSD symptoms/treatments. These children are socialised as female from birth and thus have the same access to sports limitations as XX children.

Theoretically we could eventually see a high profile trans athlete who experienced total pubertal blockade in childhood, but so far the data suggests these children have myriad health problems ranging from obesity to impaired bone density so it seems rather unlikely.
As an example, Jazz Jennings was pretty sporty in childhood (swimming and soccer) and after medical and surgical interventions is no longer capable of anywhere near the same level of physical activity.

Plus a childhood/teen years full of transgender medical appointments wouldn’t leave enough time and focus for the sort of training activity that elite athletes are usually engaged in from primary school age onwards (eg my friend has had to put her foot down and insist on scaling back on gymnastics for her Team GB scouted 9 year old because they wanted her in the gym 6 days a week).

Probablymagrat The FA won't let you talk about Blair being male. Google www.thefa.com/-/media/cfa/sussexfa/files/about/discipline/ or Blair Hamilton. The same FA who banned women's football for about 50 years.

Yes that's true, my DH has since informed me that the FA is run by 'stupid old men in tweed suits' and you 'couldn't rely on them to find their arses with both hands' and expecting a sensible response from them will be in vain.

But if the organisations that run sports are not ensuring fair play to sportswomen then there will have to be protests, or rival organisations set up that exclued men pretending to be women from competing against women.

I am not a sports fan, and no doubt I will be told why this cannot happen by someone who understands it. I just hate injustice and unfairness.