Do Transwomen Have a Competitive Advantage in Sports?

Transwomen who take hormones sometimes want to compete as women in sports. However, a bunch of randos on the internet seem to think that this is unfair towards women as a whole. Well, let's look at the evidence.

When it comes to hating the left, the side of “logic and reason” turn into endocrinologists and sports science experts. They claim they don’t care about “feelings” despite the fact that their arguments are anything BUT feelings.

The Math

Since there seems to be trouble in all areas, I want to point out some discrepancies. There are 98,817 public schools, and I will assume that all schools have at least ONE female-only sporting activity. Of that, 50% of women participate in these sports groups. There are also 5,300 colleges and universities, which I will also assume has ONE female-only sporting activity. As well as 259 annual sporting events in the US alone.

Transwomen have been able to compete in the Olympics since 2003, but from then til now, have yet to win a single medal.

Why do I say this? Because in the past 16 years since transwomen have been able to compete in the Olympics, less than 20 have won ANY fully physical kind of athletic competition anywhere (Not including things like Golf, Darts, and MotorSports).

That is compared to about 200,000 women who are playing collegiate sports alone. And we are not even talking about professionals, or high schoolers, or even the millions of female atheletes that exist outside of the US. So that means we are “concerned” about far fewer than 0.01% of people winning championships and school track events over the 99.99%. How silly.

Transwomen who didn’t win first:

Rachel McKinnon won a gold medal in a cycling competition, which has drew ire from bigots who automatically believed that she had a competitive advantage. Including third place winner Jennifer Wagner. McKinnon pointed out in an interview that Wagner has beat her in 10 out of the 13 events they took part in, so the idea that she had a competitive advantage would be silly. She also only won in a competition for people aged 35–44.

Andraya Yearwood got a lot of flack for winning the 100m and 200m dashes in a Class M females high-school competition. Despite the fact that she won 3rd in the 100-meter dash, and 8th in the 200-meter dash. Her contemporary, Terry Miller, who won first place in the nationals for the 100, and 200-meter dash, finished 4th in the 400-meter dash.

Michelle Dumaresq is a mountain biker who won a couple of times in the Nationals, but when competing in the World Championships, placed 24th in 2002, and 17th in 2004.

Natalie van Gogh is a cyclist who did not win during her 2014 team season, but was noted twice during the 2015 season. She then made 8th, 9th, and 10th places constantly during the 2018 Healthy Aging Tour.

And these are just the notable transwomen, in high-endurance sports, that won a medal. So if you look at the big picture, you can see that they won first place or second place a single time. The majority of the time, they lost.

Do Transwomen have a physical advantage?

Hormones are a fun little thing. Despite cisgendered people thinking they have 0 effects on the male body, they actually have major effects. For instance, despite bone mass being kept for at least 2 years, they experienced “substantial muscle loss.” Many show that transwomen have a lower bone mass than men, even BEFORE the start of transition.

Here is another study showing that muscle mass declines after HRT.

Due to the decline of muscle mass, the BMR of transpeople would decline as well, causing a slower metabolism. This is why transwomen are at an increased risk of gaining weight after going on hormones. Fat storage changes as well, with fat moving towards the hips, legs, and breasts.

There is also an unpublished study showing that transfemale athletes perform poorer after they take HRT. In fact, even the International Olympic Committee has come to the determination that there is no unfair advantage to being trans. I should also note that transwomen on HRT have testosterone levels similar to, if not less than, biological females.

Another study of sports policies in relation to transpeople state that:

“ Currently, there is no direct or consistent research suggesting transgender female individuals (or male individuals) have an athletic advantage at any stage of their transition (e.g. cross-sex hormones, gender-confirming surgery) and, therefore, competitive sport policies that place restrictions on transgender people need to be considered and potentially revised.”

The only things that people have told me would be an “unfair advantage” would be that men are more likely to be taller, and “have bigger hands.” Sure, I guess SOME traswomen might have those “advantages,” but I certainly don’t have larger hands, I suffer from asthma, and have more of a pear figure than an apple. I also have like, no muscle. Most trans people I know would never be able to compete with female athletes because we simply do not have the “advantages” that people think we do.

Height is not much of an advantage, as there are more cis women above 5'9" than there are transwomen that tall. Or really transwomen… period.

Caster Semenya, a biological woman born with naturally high Testosterone levels was also the point of a lot of scrutiny due to her competing against other women. According to writer Caitlyn Burns:

Further, the difference in performance between men and women in speed-based sports isabout 11%. In other words, women’s times will run about 11% slower than men running at a comparable competitive level. It went unreported that Semenya’s 2016 gold medal winning 800m time was actually 13% slower versus the men’s 800m gold medal time. She may have had higher testosterone than her competitors, but she definitely didn’t run like a man.

This writer also talks about another transgender athlete, Distance Runner Joanna Harper. Joanna chronicles her struggle has she lost 5 full minutes of run time on a 10k after starting HRT. But, you know, evidence like this isn’t what people who are stuck to the idea of “transpeople are still just as physically capable as men!”

Possible Advantage

Now I am not one to deny the evidence when it comes to this kind of thing. From what I have seen, being a transwoman in a competition like this can be an advantage IF, and ONLY IF, you were a professional athlete BEFORE you started to transition. Otherwise, you seem to have a far more level playing field.

Since all we have left is speculation about things such as handsize and lung capacity, which varies widely among men and women alike, I will happily just toss that in the bin labeled “not relevant.”

Name The Trait

What trait does a transwoman inherently have, which, if present on a cisgender woman, would have you say she shouldn’t be allowed to ever compete?

I will wait for your answer.

I mean, I have read responses from several dozen anti-trans people, and none of them have come up with any sort of evidence as to how transwomen have some kind of inherent advantage over women. No studies, sources, etc, just speculation.

So much for “facts over feelings.”