Critics of transgender athletes have long maintained that transgender women have inherent biological advantages over women who were assigned their gender at birth, but a recent study came to the surprising conclusion that this might not actually be the case after all.
A recent study that was financed by the International Olympic Committee found that while transgender women did show greater handgrip strength compared to other women, they also had lower jumping ability, lung function and relative cardiovascular fitness. As one of the authors of the study explains, this is likely due to the suppression of testosterone during the transition process.
Dr. Yannis Pitsiladis, a member of the I.O.C.’s medical and scientific commission, explains that because of testosterone suppression, transgender women actually have some disadvantages compared to other women because they now have to “carry this big skeleton with a smaller engine.”
“The jumping and blocking will not be to the same height as they were doing before. And they may find that, overall, their performance is less good,” Pitsiladis told the New York Times.
So while transgender women may be bigger and taller on average, that doesn’t mean they will be as physically fit or athletic due to the testosterone suppression.
It’s certainly an interesting conclusion.
