Comment on: “Sport and Transgender People: A Systematic Review of the Literature Relating to Sport Participation and Competitive Sport Policies”

Andrew Richardson and Mark Chen
Sports Medcine, 2020

link.springer.com/content/pdf/10…
"We read with significant interest the work produced by Jones et al. regarding transgender athletes’ experiences. However, there are two contentious issues that need further discussion."

My note: Jones' review here link.springer.com/article/10.100…
"First, the contention that transgender females have no athletic advantage at any stage of transitioning when competing against cisgendered females is highly questionable, as there is evidence to the contrary."
"Second, the sporting policies provided to support the inclusion of transgender females seem to omit sports that require the physical components of strength, power, size, combat skills and speed. These sports would present a greater athletic advantage for transgendered females."
"The authors have made a significant start in this area, but a more nuanced argument is needed to understand the inclusion policies aimed at this special population."
My note: The commentary then lists notable examples where transgender women athletes have clear advantages over females, namely Laurel Hubbard (Olympic weightlifting), Mary Gregory (powerlifting), Hannah Mouncey (AFL, handball), Fallon Fox (MMA)...
...Terry Miller and Andraya Yearwood (track running; see Soule et al. v Connecticut Association of
Schools; link below).

adfmedia.org/files/SouleCom…
"We propose that there needs to be more research on transgendered females’ physiological capabilities within strength, size, power, and combat sports."
"Use of the methodological and statistical approach of USAPL shows the quantifiable impact of allowing males to transition to females and compete in a strength sport."

My note: Kris Hunt at USAPL here.

usapowerlifting.com/wp-content/upl…
"Of the two studies mentioned by Jones et al., the most relevant to transgender women, Gooren and Bunck, found that post androgen deprivation of testosterone for their male to female group still produced a larger mean muscle mass over their non treated female to male group."
My note: Gooren and Bunck 2004 here.

eje.bioscientifica.com/view/journals/…
And relevant figure here.
"Although Harper found no overall differences in race times for transgender female endurance athletes pre or post their gender transition, (5k to marathon distances), the focus of this critique is on sports demanding athletes having larger muscle mass and testosterone levels..."
"...to suit strength, speed and power sports, not endurance sports."

My note: Harper study here.

pdfs.semanticscholar.org/1e6a/bd2c1e03b…
"More research is required in this area to create the appropriate international sporting body legislation for more sports to adhere to on this matter."

End/
From the original authors. Please pay close attention to use of quotation marks above. The majority of the text is *not* mine. I am double-checking whether the authors are happy with my extensive quoting.

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More from @FondOfBeetles

Feb 21
This is your regular reminder that I am not an entomologist and I do not study beetles.

My handle is derived from a quote about creationism and I research human genetics and genetic disorders, including one that kills males.

Here is a motor neuron I grew in a dish. Image
I do not study cool things like…

Jewel beetles. Studies of their iridescence (like liquid crystals) has helped paint chemists. It’s also surprisingly good camo (expt: attach bright or dull wings to mealworms and see which get eaten by birds…). Image
Dung beetles. They roll crap around all day. Their immune systems are a source of some interest. Image
Read 12 tweets
Feb 1
@RealTayChaTLC Right, let's do this.

Sex is *observed* at birth by “reading” external genitalia, which is a remarkably sensitive marker of sex. Sex is also now routinely observed in utero, again by “reading” external genitalia and, increasingly, by DNA analysis.
@RealTayChaTLC The definition of female is: of or denoting the sex that can produce large gametes.

This not a matter of *observation*, this is a matter of *definition*.
@RealTayChaTLC Very few animals and no plants menstruate, yet females exist across almost all complex life.
We do not become men at menopause. We certainly don’t “revert” to men, which implies we were men at some point before menopause. Maybe you think we are men before menstruation?
Read 7 tweets
Jan 25
Across the natural world, male and female are defined by reproductive function, describing the contribution of small gametes (like sperm) or large gametes (like ova), respectively, to the next generation.
In healthy humans, there are two anatomical body types, each corresponding to one of the two reproductive functions. That is, in humans, there are two sexes.
In utero, males and females develop sex-specific primary characteristics pertinent to function during reproduction.

Healthy male anatomy comprises testicles, internal genital structures like the vas deferens and an external penis and scrotum.
Read 9 tweets
Jan 23
Here is a graphic of changes in muscle and strength in transwomen pre- and post- testosterone suppression (12+ months), compared with baseline metrics from demographically matched females.
The original data is presented in Hilton and Lundberg, 2021 (Table 4).

My coauthor was Dr Tommy Lundberg @TLexercise

link.springer.com/article/10.100…
The graphic was created by me for a policy paper I coauthored with Professor Jon Pike @runthinkwrite and Professor Leslie Howe @usask for the Canadian think tank The MacDonald Laurier Institute.

macdonaldlaurier.ca/biology-fairne…
Read 11 tweets
Jan 19
I recently tweeted about people who think I believe humans are asparagus.

This bad faith take stems (ha ha) from an analogy I’ve used to illustrate that the phenomenon of male/female is not limited to the constructions of the human brain.
Like many plants, and like humans, (some) asparagus strains are dioecious - they exist as individuals male and individual female plants. In animals, we call this set up ‘gonochorism’.
Asparagus can reproduce via the fusion of one small and one large gamete (sometimes, they reproduce asexually).

Biological convention denotes the plant morph producing the large gamete, found in the ovules, as ‘female’.
Read 16 tweets
Jan 18
Sexual dimorphism.

Systematic differences between the two sexes of a gonochoristic species of a physical characteristic (or set thereof), not including reproductive anatomy.
Some sexually dimorphic characteristics are non-overlapping (e.g. deer antlers) while some are very overlapping (e.g. human height).

The extent of overlapping observation/measurement is irrelevant. The only requirement is a robustly-detectable difference between sexes.
Many female humans are taller than many male humans, yet the population descriptions of height in humans consistently reveal that males as a sex class are taller than their demographically-matched female peers.

Height in humans is a sexually dimorphic characteristic.
Read 11 tweets

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