The Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport has released an excellent report entitled ‘Transgender Women Athletes and Elite Sport: A Scientific Review’.

Along with the full report, you can download an executive summary, and a research summary and recommendations.

Key Findings

Key Biomedical Findings

  • Biological data are severely limited, and often methodologically flawed.
  • There is limited evidence regarding the impact of testosterone suppression (through, for example, gender-affirming hormone therapy or surgical gonad removal) on transgender women athletes’ performance.
  • Available evidence indicates trans women who have undergone testosterone suppression have no clear biological advantages over cis women in elite sport.

Key Sociocultural Findings

  • Biomedical studies are overvalued in sports policies in comparison to social sciences studies.
  • Policies that impact trans women’s participation in elite sport are the continuation of a long history of exclusion of women from competitive sport – an exclusion that resulted in the introduction of a ‘women’s’ category of sport in the first place.
  • Many trans “inclusion” sport policies use arbitrary bounds that are not evidence based.
  • Cissexism, transphobia, transmisogyny and overlapping systems of oppression need to be recognized and addressed for trans women to participate in elite sport.

PDF – read online or download

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