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.
