New analysis denies theory that trans women have physical advantages in sport

A meta-analysis of 52 studies that included more than 5,000 transgender people suggests that the physical fitness of transgender women after hormone therapy is comparable to that of cisgender women.

Transgender women who have undergone hormonal therapies have physical fitness comparable to that of cisgender women.

It is the conclusion of a review, last week in the British Journal of Sports Medicinewhich analyzed 52 studies evaluating the body composition, muscular strength and aerobic capacity of almost 6,500 individuals, including around 2,900 transgender women and 2,300 transgender men.

Although the study contradicts the claim that trans women have an inherent and unfair advantage due to certain basic physical traits, it is important to note that did not analyze elite athletes nor capture all the elements that go into sports performance.

Although circulating testosterone levels appear to increase muscle mass, strength and aerobic capacity, bans often argue that past exposure to testosterone during puberty gives individuals a permanent and inherent physical advantage over cisgender women.

To see if this was true, researchers gathered data from many studies that used different approaches and measures to compare physical fitness in transgender and cisgender people. Study participants ranged in age from 14 to 41, and most were adults.

One of the conclusions was that, when normalized as a function of height, “transgender women, after gender-affirming hormone therapy, do not have greater strength or greater aerobic capacity than cisgender women” – explained the leader of the investigation, Bruno Gualanofrom the Center for Lifestyle Medicine at the University of São Paulo, at .

This included both upper and lower body strength.

Transgender women also presented a comparable fat mass to that of cisgender women. “They have slightly higher lean mass,” said Gualano, “but that doesn’t translate into greater strength or greater maximum oxygen consumption.”

“The majority of participants included in the analysis were not competitive athletes, so we must be cautious when extrapolating directly to elite sport”, acknowledged the researcher.

“Even so, If there were great intrinsic physical advantages, one would expect to see them even in non-athletic populationsand that’s not what we see,” he added.

“The results challenge the notion that trans women have intrinsic athletic advantages,” he confirmed to Live Science, There’s Cheungendocrinologist and director of the Trans Health Research Group at the University of Melbourne (Australia), who was not involved in the study.

“Contrary to the narratives used to exclude transgender athletes from sport, there is no evidence that transgender women have any kind of advantage”, agreed, to the same magazine, Phoebe Toups Dugasprofessor of human-centered computing at the Exertion Games Lab at Monash University (Australia), who was also not involved in the study.