New study challenges trans ‘advantage’ argument in women’s sports
A new study has challenged the idea trans athletes have an advantage (Stock Image/Getty Images)
A new scientific study is challenging one of the central arguments used to justify bans on transgender women and girls competing in women’s sports.
The argument that transgender women retain an inherent physical advantage over cisgender women after undergoing hormone therapy is being challenged by researchers in Brazil who pooled the results of 52 studies involving thousands of participants to compare the physical characteristics and fitness of transgender women and cisgender women following hormone therapy in a study published this year.
The researchers found that transgender women generally had greater lean muscle mass, but that difference did not translate into a clear advantage in physical performance. Across the studies examined, there were no meaningful differences between transgender and cisgender women in upper-body strength, lower-body strength or aerobic fitness after hormone therapy.
The study’s authors concluded that while transgender women exhibited higher lean mass, their overall physical fitness was comparable with that of cisgender women. They also noted that the available evidence is largely of low certainty and varies in quality.
Bruno Gualano, a physician and researcher at the University of São Paulo and a co-author of the study, said the findings challenge the reasoning behind blanket restrictions on transgender women in sport.
“This refutes the logic behind blanket bans on transgender women in sports,” Gualano said in a 15 June interview with The Brighter Side. He argued that many such policies are based on the assumption that transgender women retain inherent physical advantages that would allow them to dominate women’s competitions, adding: “The data does not support this idea.”
The research comes amid an increasingly contentious political debate over transgender participation in sport in the United States. A growing number of states have introduced restrictions on transgender athletes, while professional sporting bodies have also adopted policies limiting participation. President Donald Trump signed an executive order in February targeting transgender participation in women’s sports and directing the federal government to prioritise Title IX enforcement against schools that allow transgender women and girls to compete.
The study does not establish that every transgender athlete has identical physical characteristics or that questions around eligibility in sport have a single scientific answer. The researchers themselves emphasised the limitations and varying quality of the existing evidence.
However, the study’s findings challenge the broad claim that transgender women who undergo hormone therapy necessarily retain a significant physical advantage over cisgender women.
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