Trans People and Sports: Everything You Need to Know
I have been writing about transgender people and issues for over twenty years now. For most of that time, I never felt the need to pen a piece about trans athletes, in part, because it’s fairly straightforward. Most of the advantages that men have in sports stem from having higher androgen levels than women, which leads to increases in muscle mass and hemoglobin. This is why taking “steroids” (read: synthetic variants of testosterone) is banned in most sports. Trans women who are on gender-affirming hormone therapy tend to have female-typical levels of androgens and lose said muscle mass and hemoglobin accordingly. Sports organizations such as the IOC (International Olympic Committee), NCAA, and so on, have long had policies in place to monitor trans women’s androgen levels in order for them to be allowed to compete in women’s events.
Of course, one can always split hairs and/or speculate about other potential advantages (addressed below). But the fact that no trans woman has ever dominated in any women’s sports league or category shows that we are not “taking over” or “destroying” women’s sports.
So you may be thinking: If that’s really the case, then why do I keep seeing all these political ads and social media posts about trans athletes? Well that, my friend, is what we call manufactured controversy.
