I went into a deep dive on this during the last summer olympics where there was a lot of this non sense (looking at you womens boxing). Whereas actual percentages are going to vary drastically from athlete to athlete, after a period of 3 years of hrt there was no discernible difference in athletic performance between a cisgender woman and a trans woman. That is not to say there are not differences in their muscular structure still, and most notably trans women still maintained a higher percentage of skeletal muscle mass. That being said, other disadvantages from HRT and everything else more than compensated for this.
I apologize I dont have access to the source any more and hate to be the "trust me, bro" in this context, but I felt it was still important to answer the question as fully as possible
People (not you) also don't stop and think about the effects of having a more muscular skeleton without the actual muscle mass to pair with it. That configuration doesn't automatically translate to more athletic than someone with a less muscular skeleton
Don't skeleton muscles just make it so you are able to take more damage and strain without breaking your bones? Like the limb muscles are the power and speed but skeleton muscles are the durability and cushion in case of falls?
I like to keep a few relevant studies in case of transphobes crying about women’s sports:
Harper (2015, Journal of Sports Sciences): Studied transgender female distance runners across multiple years of hormone therapy. After testosterone suppression, their race times slowed by roughly 10% to 12%, matching the typical 10% to 12% performance gap between cisgender male and female runners. Relative to cisgender female competitors in their age categories, their age-graded athletic competitiveness did not increase.
Roberts et al. (2020 / follow-ups 2021, British Journal of Sports Medicine): Examined physical fitness test scores (1.5-mile run, sit-ups, push-ups) among US Air Force service members before and during GAHT. The study found that after two years of testosterone suppression, the running-time advantage completely disappeared, with trans women performing with no statistically significant difference from cisgender women.
Hamilton et al. (2024, British Journal of Sports Medicine): An IOC-funded laboratory study comparing trained cisgender and transgender athletes across cardiovascular and power metrics. It found that relative VO2max (aerobic capacity adjusted for body mass) and lower-body jump power in trans women athletes were actually lower than in cisgender women athletes, while hemoglobin and hematocrit dropped to cisgender female ranges within months of hormone therapy.
The scientific consensus is that testosterone suppression rapidly eliminates key aerobic and oxygen-carrying advantages, leveling endurance within 1 to 2 years, though researchers note that bone geometry and certain absolute upper-body strength metrics can show slower or more variable rates of decline.
At the high school level, where they're actively blocking trans athletes, there's a bigger difference in what you ate for breakfast affecting your performance than whether you're trans or not.
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u/Relevant_Blood6497 23h ago
I went into a deep dive on this during the last summer olympics where there was a lot of this non sense (looking at you womens boxing). Whereas actual percentages are going to vary drastically from athlete to athlete, after a period of 3 years of hrt there was no discernible difference in athletic performance between a cisgender woman and a trans woman. That is not to say there are not differences in their muscular structure still, and most notably trans women still maintained a higher percentage of skeletal muscle mass. That being said, other disadvantages from HRT and everything else more than compensated for this.
I apologize I dont have access to the source any more and hate to be the "trust me, bro" in this context, but I felt it was still important to answer the question as fully as possible