Sporting Gender: The History, Science, and Stories of Transgender and Intersex Athletes

The title pretty much tells it all. This book is an exploration of transgender and intersex athletics by a transgender author. She has a very intimate knowledge of the topic and fills the books with many details and personal experiences. Alas, it often gets bogged down with too much detail and lacks a strong narrative.

One of the key points boils down to the question of why we segregate sport by gender. The author has some strong views that make a lot of sense. At younger ages and lower levels, it makes sense to let athletes compete with whatever group they identify. Prepubescents are fairly similar in ability. Older athletes may have some masculine advantage, but it likely is not significant enough to impact women's participation. At higher levels, the concept of "athletic gender" comes in to place. Testosterone levels are often a good way to judge appropriate "athletic gender". Many intersex athletes identify as female, yet have male testosterone levels and competitive ability. Allowing them to compete as female limits the ability of other females to compete. For transgender females, hormone therapy that brings them in to the female range is often accompanied by female levels of competitiveness.

The author has spent some time studying running times of athletes that had transitioned. She found that trans females typically see their times drop after transition. This drop often leaves their times in the same female age-based percentile as their previous male age-based percentile. Other sports may have different impacts. Trans females retain height advantages they had. They do typically lose muscle mass, but still may maintain some small advantages in strength-based sports.

While people are primarily concerned with transgender females competing as women, there are also transgender males that compete in sports. They have greater challenges to overcome, but have competed at some levels. The high school level has had some interesting cases. In Texas, transgender athletes are required to complete as their birth gender. This resulted in the case of a transgender male dominating the girls in wrestling. Connecticut had controversy from the opposite side as transgender females competed without going through hormonal transition and won. 

It is among the intersex that greatest controversy arises at the elite levels. In many cases, intersex athletes are at an athletic disadvantage. However, in some cases, they have both male and female features. They may be identified as female since birth, yet produce male levels of testosterone. There have been many attempts to ensure that they don't have an advantage. Visual tests, chromosome tests, required surgery and analysis of testosterone levels have all been used. The current state admits that this does discriminate, but that this allows others to compete. Those that have elevated hormones may compete as men.  

We are probably have some time to go before we have a balanced field where everybody is happy. There is a balance needed on allowing everybody to fairly compete. Testosterone levels seem like a good indicator. But what about other biological advantages? And what will happen if a trans female does succeed at the highest levels of sport?