Science, sports and supporting transwomen

There is an ongoing debate in the US and internationally over whether it is fair and safe for transwomen to play on teams or against CIS women, who are people who were assigned female at birth and their gender identity is female. The topic has been growing particularly here in the United States in recent weeks as more than thirty states have already passed laws that require transgender athletes to play for the team that goes against their gender identity. What many of the debates are missing is the question of what, if any, hormones transwomen have taken or are taking. There are currently some accepted guidelines based off very sparse research surrounding what the appropriate level of testosterone for transwomen is to compete on women’s sports teams, but much more research needs to be done. One person who is involved in a study looking at the science behind including transwomen on women’s sports teams is Blair Hamilton. She currently is pursuing her PhD at Brighton University in the UK and is working with a team on the Tavistock Transgender Athlete Study, which is specifically looking at how to integrate transwomen and differences of sex development athletes into elite women's sport. She is a transwoman herself and has played football, soccer as we call it here in the US, since she was young, even playing for University of Aberdeen while she pursued her undergraduate degree in exercise and health science. Here’s what she had to say.