I've a niece who is identifying as a transman. She's not sporty my question doesn't apply to her herself.
But I was wondering about the fact that nobody really seems to be talking about what her options would be for sports if she was.
At the moment a trans-identifying male can compete with and against females in non-elite sports. For elite sports, many sporting bodies are telling him that it doesn't matter however low his testosterone levels are after using x-sex hormones, if he's gone through male puberty than he has to compete in the MALE/OPEN game.
All good, I think most of the sane world know he's a man and want to protect women's sports.
But what happens with transmen?
Testosterone, no matter what it is used for, is classed as a doping drug. So trans-identifying females who wish to participate at a semi-pro or pro level will not be able to take "gender affirming medicines" if they want a sports career. There is an absolute, hardline NO in their participation in sports within both the MALE, FEMALE and OPEN categories because of this.
So if sane rules apply, Lia Thomas will be refused to race against women but can compete in the Male and Open categories whilst taking oestrogen. That's inclusive to both males and females and respects Thomas' wish to have 'gender affirming medicine'.
But Iszac Henig, trans-identifying female aka transman who raced in the same championships as Thomas, couldn't take gender affirming medicine until after the event. She had her breasts removed but knew that if she took testosterone she would be thrown out of her sport for ever.
What's the answer here. No newspaper ever talks about this?