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MtF lifter wins international women’s competition, raises concerns on Olympics policy

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Platy

Member
Can we have maybe a cut-off point with Trans people that want to participate in how long that have been transitioning?

I mean say a MtF just started not even 6 months will still have a huge advantage against her female counterparts, while maybe someone 3+ years might be more of a equal footing

I know transitioning is a huge undertaking for an individual, no "peak time" is considered the norm
Trying to mean that there's a specific time to transition
Some get to it later in life, while others very early

They way I see it, is get together with Trans-Oriented knowledgeable people/organizations with the governing bodies and set guidelines and precedents on how to move forward

As I stated earlier, a MtF or FtM would need to be "buffered" into competition
You can't just claim gender identity switch and think performance from inherent bodily makeup might give you an advantage

We already have it : 2 years in regular testosterone levels

The case in the OP she has been transition for 6 years
 
No one is saying that should be allowed. I agree that trans people should follow the proper guidelines and be transitioning and have certain levels for so long before competing. FYI, its 2 years of HRT for the Olympics.

It's actually changed to 1 I believe if I read the new rules... but with all the levels rules in place
 

Clockwork

Member
Do you think she should have been able to compete in the women's competition before she transitioned?

Why the loaded question?

Gender dysphoria is a mental attribute concerning gender whereas our discussion is related to the physical attributes and advantages inherent to sex.

The transition processes (including HRT) is a means to address that difference to more closely match said persons gender identity. This is still an approximation and you will never achieve a 1 to 1 parity between a cis and transexual person.

If being able to compete on an even playing field is questionable for the above situation why does the above need to be asked?

No, that person should not be allowed to compete.
 

airjoca

Member
Seems to give some small advantage, but not overwhelmingly so.

Certainly not so much for us to even entertain the absurdly ridiculous notion that a rash of males athletes will go through the mental and physical stress of transitioning so they can win a sporting competition.

Ever read or heard about the practice of impregnating athletes and then having an abortion to improve physical ability?

People, sports federations and countries will go to the worst lengths if it means success.
 

Dhx

Member
Yes, it proves that people don't consider a trans woman a woman and treat her as something different.

I don't care her outlier is more outlier than any other outlier that ever outlied.

Outliers are allowed if they fit the weight and testosterone levels.

So DEAL WITH IT

That's great that you don't care. I don't care your your disingenuous response. I suppose this is where I tell you to deal with it. The petulant, dismissive tone of your posts is unwarranted.

Record for age 35-39 women: 220.0kg, set 23-Jul-2005 at the World Masters Games
Record for age 40-44 women: 178.0kg, set 11-Oct-2009 at the World Masters Games

Hubbard at age 39: 268kg

Source
 

Ray Wonder

Founder of the Wounded Tagless Children
Has there ever been a case of a FtM transgender person winning a title like this? I'm just curious.
 

GraveRobberX

Platinum Trophy: Learned to Shit While Upright Again.
Oh so there are guidelines and if she followed them, then it's a-ok in my book

I was more talking on a Universal transitioning scale
That should quiet the other side down

Thanks for info and link, it should become more open and knowledgeable to everyone
I think Transgender people will have to take their lumps from bigots, assholes, scared of the unknown and hope time and knowledge enters society quicker than gay rights took
Trans people just get spotlighted harder because the baggage of how it's redefining themselves makes others uncomfortable

Hoping for the best
 

Platy

Member
That's great that you don't care. I don't care your your disingenuous response. I suppose this is where I tell you to deal with it. The petulant, dismissive tone of your posts is unwarranted.

Record for age 35-39 women: 220.0kg, set 23-Jul-2005 at the World Masters Games
Record for age 40-44 women: 178.0kg, set 11-Oct-2009 at the World Masters Games

Hubbard at age 39: 268kg

Source

OLYMPIC record for women weighting 45 in 1993 : 180.0 kg
Current world record : 217 kg

I think cis women from today should not be allowed to compete because they have an unfair advantage to women 20 years ago

Disagree completely, but there will be another time for this I won't derail the thread.

A small example to help you understand : intersex people and cromossome variations. When they belong to male sex and when they belong to female sex. Where do you draw the line is socially constructed
 
It shows the opposite of what I was trying to argue? Let's look at the researcher's conclusions from the paper.

Conclusion isn't data.

The data doesn't necessarily support their conclusion. I pointed this out about 3 pages ago now. Their conclusions are that despite the data showing a clear advantage, it's still smaller than the differences between M and F. And the differences between M and M-F are larger than the differences between F and M-F.

Therefore, because they have a smaller advantages versus F than their disadvantage versus M, they should be placed into the F competition.

There's absolute nothing to debate about the data. M-F have an advantage, across mean, SD, and CI, against F. Conversely, M have an advantage against M-F as well.

So the question becomes whether we force M-F to participate against M, who they have a distinct disadvantage against, allow them to compete against F, who they have a distinct advantage against, or some other solution.

You were arguing that there's no difference between M-F and F. And that's not what the research says, quite the opposite actually. The conclusion of the research is not that there is no difference between the two - but that in a binary system of M and F competitions, a M-F competitor should be placed into the F category because that's where they have the smallest advantage/disadvantage against the rest of the field.

But there's still a measurable advantage.
 

Platy

Member
But there's still a measurable advantage.

Let me say it has a ridiculous advantage. So does producing more blood cells or having grow hormone above average. Hell, even cis women who had insane testosterone levels on puberty would have the exact same advantage.

WHY would you do anything ?

People are born this way and if they fit requirements of gender, weight and testosterone there is no reason to not let the person compete.

It is simple impossible to ask everyone's entire medical history since puberty, specialy on the olympics where we have people who were living in places without water in puberty, let alone medical history
 

Ethelwulf

Member
A small example to help you understand : intersex people and cromossome variations. When they belong to male sex and when they belong to female sex. Where do you draw the line is socially constructed

You don't need to be condescending with every post you make. And yes I know, I studied evolutionary biology for my undergraduate degree. I know what your arguments will be and I don't want to get in a never-ending discussion right now. So let's just agree to disagree.
 
Same then.

?

I'm not sure what you mean with this comment. What I was saying was that with a small sample size like in study, you can still probably draw general conclusions by comparing the upper quartile/quintile, where data showed a big difference. But any comparison of the biggest outlier in each group is not really useful for drawing general conclusions

ScatheZombie is making the points I'm trying to make much more clearly than I am
 

Keri

Member
I feel this issue should sort itself out, if we will start seeing an unproportional representation of trans women in professional women sport a complete ban should be implemented, but I think it's to early to call.

I think something similar. If we start seeing a disproportionate amount of trans women winning titles or setting records, then we need to reconsider whether they have an unfair advantage that requires rethinking how we go forward with these competitions. I'd prefer there not to be a complete ban though. I'd hope for some other option to appear, although I don't know what it would be.
 
It'd be cool if you guys could do something other than sticking your fingers in your ears while shouting "Not Uh!" when people point out the flaws in your arguments, the holes in your data, or the realities of your cited research.
 

Clockwork

Member
Let me say it has a ridiculous advantage. So does producing more blood cells or having grow hormone above average. Hell, even cis women who had insane testosterone levels on puberty would have the exact same advantage.

WHY would you do anything ?

People are born this way and if they fit requirements of gender, weight and testosterone there is no reason to not let the person compete.

It is simple impossible to ask everyone's entire medical history since puberty, specialy on the olympics where we have people who were living in places without water in puberty, let alone medical history

The problem is that historically speaking both sex and gender in terms of segregating competition for sports have been largely treated as the same thing, i.e. a genetically born male (sex) would also share a male gender identity so very little attention was paid to disseminating the defferences between the two.

So knowing the genetic advantages of males vs females(sex) it was rather simple to say that males compete against males and females compete against females.

Now that gender identity has to be taken into account it becomes much more complex as although a male (sex) might identify as female (gender) they still have the inherent physical advantages of being male (sex) from a pre-transition standpoint and also quite possibly (and I believe this to be the case) from a post transition standpoint.

Things are much more complex than having gone through HRT or measurements of testosterone levels.
 

Platy

Member
The problem is that historically speaking both sex and gender in terms of segregating competition for sports have been largely treated as the same thing, i.e. a genetically born male (sex) would also share a male gender identity so very little attention was paid to disseminating the defferences between the two.

So knowing the genetic advantages of males vs females(sex) it was rather simple to say that males compete against males and females compete against females.

Now that gender identity has to be taken into account it becomes much more complex as although a male (sex) might identify as female (gender) they still have the inherent physical advantages of being male (sex) from a pre-transition standpoint and also quite possibly (and I believe this to be the case) from a post transition standpoint.

Things are much more complex than having gone through HRT or measurements of testosterone levels.

Not it is not. People in this thread are making it way more complicate than it should.

If you have the gender, the weight and the testosterone levels for 2 years you can compete.

If you still have some advantage after that than it is life. Lots of people have advantages after that, not just trans people.
 
If you still have some advantage after that than it is life. Lots of people have advantages after that, not just trans people.

The only genetic advantage we separate competitors based on is biological sex.

Arguments about 'other advantages' are rather moot in that context, I think.
 
D

Deleted member 17706

Unconfirmed Member
Not it is not. People in this thread are making it way more complicate than it should.

If you have the gender, the weight and the testosterone levels for 2 years you can compete.

If you still have some advantage after that than it is life. Lots of people have advantages after that, not just trans people.

Fair enough. In this particular instance, it sounds like all of the established guidelines were followed. I think a lot of people, myself included, are speaking in more general terms.
 

kirblar

Member
Not it is not. People in this thread are making it way more complicate than it should.

If you have the gender, the weight and the testosterone levels for 2 years you can compete.

If you still have some advantage after that than it is life. Lots of people have advantages after that, not just trans people.
That is the current text of the rule. Trying to say "this is the rule, deal with it" in a conversation about what the rule should be is not an actual argument. You're trying to defend your position by saying the status quo is correct because it's the status quo.
 

Platy

Member
No, the status quo is correct because it is the best choice.
Even if trans women had insane bonuses ... we have no problem with other insane bonuses !

[edit] I am trans ... I will NEVER defend "because status quo" because the status quo hates me 99% of the time =P[/edit]

The only genetic advantage we separate competitors based on is biological sex.

[citation needed]

The actual separation is testosterone levels and gender
Otherwise trans people would not be allowed to compete at all and look, she competed just fine !
And trans women are welcome to compete in the olympics ... and guess what, NO TRANS WOMEN CLASSIFIED FOR THE LAST OLYMPICS so the fears of trans women dominating sports are not based on anything
 
[citation needed]

The actual separation is testosterone levels and gender

It was explained earlier in the thread that up until the last few years of competition, gender and biological sex were synonymous with each other. Because the assumption was that they were one in the same. We now know that's inaccurate. Gender has nothing to do with origins of the separation of competition. It's only a factor now, and a debated one at that.

The separator for testosterone levels is derived from biological sex. M-F have lower testosterone levels because of HRT, not gender identity. Their gender identity is the reason for their HRT. Without HRT, a M-F gender identity would not be allowed to compete because they would exceed the testosterone levels due to their original biological sex.

So it's not gender identity that's the separator. It's testosterone levels that are largely affected by biological sex. And even then, that's not necessarily the separator, that's the metric used to determine the separation. The assumption being that high testosterone levels indicate either cheating or biological sex difference.
 

MrToughPants

Brian Burke punched my mom
Not it is not. People in this thread are making it way more complicate than it should.

If you have the gender, the weight and the testosterone levels for 2 years you can compete.

If you still have some advantage after that than it is life. Lots of people have advantages after that, not just trans people.

One of the complaints about 1-2 year bans for PED use in sports is the lasting effect of exogenous androgen use. During atrophy the muscle cell nuclei don't die during apoptosis, muscle memory. A natural male athlete who builds the proper mass/strength fibers will develop this muscle memory advantage over a female because their test levels are naturally higher. So a female who transitioned (MtF) could pose some advantages when competing against non transitioned females. At the world/olympic level these advantages can be a factor.

Previous strength training with or without the use of anabolic steroids facilitates subsequent re-acquisition of muscle mass even after long intervening periods of inactivity. Based on in vivo and ex vivo microscopy we here propose a cellular memory mechanism residing in the muscle cells. Female mice were treated with testosterone propionate for 14 days, inducing a 66% increase in the number of myonuclei and a 77% increase in fibre cross-sectional area. Three weeks after removing the drug, fibre size was decreased to the same level as in sham treated animals, but the number of nuclei remained elevated for at least 3 months (>10% of the mouse lifespan). At this time, when the myonuclei-rich muscles were exposed to overload-exercise for 6 days, the fibre cross-sectional area increased by 31% while control muscles did not grow significantly. We suggest that the lasting, elevated number of myonuclei constitutes a cellular memory facilitating subsequent muscle overload hypertrophy. Our findings might have consequences for the exclusion time of doping offenders. Since the ability to generate new myonuclei is impaired in the elderly our data also invites speculation that it might be beneficial to perform strength training when young in order to benefit in senescence.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1113/jphysiol.2013.264457/abstract
 

Platy

Member
Whatever.

If people really think she had an unfair advantage because of bone density or muscle mass and that advantage is not ok because of reasons, than you should be defending the creation of subcategories of bone density or muscle mass.

Treat the advantage as the advantage itself.

It makes no sense to say "this woman has more bone density, therefore we should abolish gender categories". You can have bone density categories within gender. Would bone density be more important than weight ? Or less ? It is important to know whatever it replaces weight or becomes a subcategory.

Not only it makes it turn into a "women are actualy men" but ignore trans people that transitioned before puberty, which is something that will increasingly become more common. And transitioning before puberty destroys any advantage that people saying the women in the op might have, because it is in puberty that bones are affected by hormones.

One of the complaints about 1-2 year bans for PED use in sports is the lasting effect of exogenous androgen use. During atrophy the muscle cell nuclei don't die during apoptosis, muscle memory. A natural male athlete who builds the proper mass/strength fibers will develop this muscle memory advantage over a female because their test levels are naturally higher. So a female who transitioned (MtF) could pose some advantages when competing against non transitioned females. At the world/olympic level these advantages can be a factor.

And using steroids will make the testosterone levels of a cis woman rise ... and yet it is totaly ok to acept women with higher than average testosterone without any type of testosterone blockers.

The problem is the enhancing drug, not the fact that people can be born with this
 

MrToughPants

Brian Burke punched my mom
And using steroids will make the testosterone levels of a cis woman rise ... and yet it is totaly ok to acept women with higher than average testosterone without any type of testosterone blockers.

The problem is the enhancing drug, not the fact that people can be born with this

So steroids for all is the solution for professional sports? Should we have a steroid league vs natural league?

USADA/WADA have test level guidelines, seems this particular MtF athlete was at the upper limit.

No you don't need steroids to develop nuclei in the muscle... The factor is the MtF athlete having an already developed biological advantage that will be passed on even if their test and muscle mass decreases...
 

Platy

Member
So steroids for all is the solution for professional sports? Should we have a steroid league vs natural league?

image.php


Sorry, the Futurama joke was too easy =P

I never said to give steroids to all. I am one of the few people in this thread saying SPORTS IS NOT FAIR TO EVERYONE because it is basicaly genetic lottery. If people were born with steroid enhancing powers (like Big Foot from UFC, since people love to use examples where people could get hurt) than let them be !

lmao what? so every woman interested in weightlifting is fucked then?

Does not exist that much trans woman in the world ... let alone interested in weightlifting

Couldn't HRT technically be considered an enhancing drug if it allows you to compete at the top end of a lower (testosterone-wise) bracket?

How can decreasing your muscle mass be considered an enhancing drug ?
 
This thread never goes well lmao...

I'm saying we should do more research before pumping kids with hormones, as most studies show conflicting results.

Some reading on the subject, though of course there is a lot more.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/25721104/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/28257955/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/26830952/

And yet HRT is a demonstrated treatment for gender dysphoria, which I can tell you is a lot more life-threatening than what you describe. The language you use too sounds like old-fashioned scaremongering. "Pumping kids with hormones"
 

APF

Member
It should be noted that discontinuing androgen use is different than using anti-androgens.

But I like the untested olympics idea regardless.
 

Flo_Evans

Member
I feel like this is only going to get murkier once genetic engineering and designer babies really kicks off.

Do we ban people with artificially modified genes or just say fuck it? What happens when we can make artificial lungs that are far superior to human lungs and you can get a transplant? Do we have a "normal" and "enhanced" olympics?

As for the weightlifter I don't know her full story but I kind of feel like she should step aside... yes you are technically within the rules but come on.
 

Caayn

Member
Sounds unfair to other contesters to be honest. Even with the low amount of transgender people partaking in professional sports, it's enough to skew the top end as that's where every advantage counts.

Maybe the solution would be to introduce a new category in sports for transgender people, similar to how we've got categories for men, women and people with a handicap.
 
Maybe you could read the second half of the sentence you just quoted for the answer...

So you're saying someone would intentionally claim being transgender, go through HRT for 2+ years, and all the other shit just so they could compete in a "lower" testosterone group? That's what we're worried about? This sounds like the same argument with the bathrooms and random people "claiming" transgender to creep on the opposite sex in the bathroom.
 

Keri

Member
I never said to give steroids to all. I am one of the few people in this thread saying SPORTS IS NOT FAIR TO EVERYONE because it is basicaly genetic lottery. If people were born with steroid enhancing powers (like Big Foot from UFC, since people love to use examples where people could get hurt) than let them be !

I don't think the argument that "sports is not fair to everyone" works. You could use this argument to justify abolishing separate male and female categories entirety, effectively barring all women from competing (because sports just isn't fair...) The whole point is that, if we can easily categorize people in ways that account for differences in ability, to allow fair competition...we do.
 
Ok ... if it is, which would a trans woman have to use to compete ?

Nothing at all ?

Would you rather a trans woman compete without using any HRT ?

On the contrary, I think F competitors should be able to use drugs to increase their testosterone levels to just below the competition threshold in the same way that M-F competitors are allowed to use drugs to decrease their testosterone levels to just below the competition threshold.

Because it seems like one side of this equation is allowed to target a specific competition threshold using drugs while the other is far more limited in their means to do so (most of those types of drugs are banned).

So you're saying someone would intentionally claim being transgender, go through HRT for 2+ years, and all the other shit just so they could compete in a "lower" testosterone group? That's what we're worried about? This sounds like the same argument with the bathrooms and random people "claiming" transgender to creep on the opposite sex in the bathroom.

This was never even remotely implied in any of my multiple posts in this thread.
 

Ray Wonder

Founder of the Wounded Tagless Children
We never even had a case of a trans woman winning a title like this =P

Don't you think we'd be having these debates with examples of both MtF and FtM transgender people winning sports titles, to use as evidence? Not necessarily at this level, but at any level?
 
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