The Truth About Transgender Females’ Bodies & Athleticism.
Michelle Cretella / Quentin Van Meter / July 22, 2021
COMMENTARY BY
Michelle Cretella, M.D., is executive director of the American
College of Pediatricians.
Quentin Van Meter, M.D., is a pediatric endocrinologist and
president of the American College of Pediatricians.
When it was announced that Laurel Hubbard, a male athlete who
identifies as female, was selected to represent New Zealand on the
women’s weightlifting team in the upcoming Olympic Games in Tokyo,
it was considered by some to be a victory for the transgender move-
ment and “the power of inclusion.” Others consider it unfair to both
the sport and the athletes.
Anna Vanbellinghen, a female weightlifter from Belgium who hoped
to qualify in the same event as Hubbard, made it clear that she
“fully supports the transgender community.” However, she correctly
pointed out that steroids—which give athletes unfair advantages—can
have retained benefits even years after their use.
“So why is it still a question whether two decades, from puberty
to the age of 35, with the hormonal system of a man also would give
an advantage [in competing against women]?” she asked in a recent
interview.
The International Olympic Committee ruled in 2015 that trans-
gender athletes “who transition from male to female are eligible to
compete in the female category” so long as their testosterone level
has been below a certain threshold for at least 12 months.
At least two recent peer-reviewed studies challenge this rule.
One published in the journal Sports Medicine found “the muscular
advantage enjoyed by transgender women [men on estrogen] is only
minimally reduced when testosterone is suppressed” for 12 months.
A second review article found the male strength advantage to remain
even after three years of testosterone suppression.
Even if the strength advantage could be eliminated, however,
to reduce the definition of female human being to having a certain
level of testosterone in your body for a certain amount of time com-
pletely ignores the scientific reality that genetics—not testoste-
rone—is at the root of all that makes the two sexes different.
When males are allowed to compete in athletic leagues designed
for females, they deprive female athletes of the opportunity to safe
and fair participation in sports. As Vanbellinghen said, “Life-
changing opportunities are missed for some athletes—medals and Olym-
pic qualifications—and we are powerless.”
She is not alone. Female sports at all levels have been infil-
trated by the transgender ideology. Here are just a few examples of
how females have been harmed when forced to compete against males:
*In track and field, male high school runner CeCe Telfer won
three titles in the Northeast-10 Championships for women’s track,
and received the “most outstanding track athlete” award.
*In softball, male player Pat (Patrick) Cordova-Goff took one
of 15 spots on his California high school women’s varsity softball
team.
*In basketball, a 50-year-old, 6-foot-8-inch, 230-pound man,
Gabrielle (Robert) Ludwig, led the Mission College women’s baske
ball team to a national championship with the most rebounds.
*In mixed martial arts, male fighter Fallon Fox shattered
female fighter Tamikka Brents’ eye socket and gave her a concussion.
Brents said she “never felt so overpowered in her life.”
*In Connecticut’s state track and field championships, two male
high school runners, Andraya Yearwood and Terry Miller, took first
and second place in multiple events, beating out top high school
girls from across the state. Yearwood was named Connecticut’s “ath-
lete of the year.”
The simple truth is that males outperform females in regard to
speed and strength due to inborn genetics and sex hormones. This has
consistently been proven by long-term research on elite athletes
when matched for training.
The sex hormone testosterone plays an important role in regula-
ting bone mass, fat distribution, muscle mass, strength, and the
production of red blood cells leading to higher circulating hemo-
globin. This is particularly true during puberty.
After puberty, male circulating testosterone concentrations are
15 times greater than those of females at any age. The result is a
clear male advantage in regard to muscle mass, strength and circu-
lating hemoglobin levels even after adjusting for sex differences
in height and weight.
Athletic differences are also due to genetics. Studies have
identified more than 3,000 genes that are differentially expressed
in male and female skeletal muscle. Obvious bone differences due to
a combination of genetics and hormones even exist at birth; the
average male is heavier and taller than the average female and this
advantage continues, when controlled for stage of puberty, through-
out life.
Genetics is why a male who self-identifies as female remains
male, and giving estrogen to a male does not transform him into a
female.
While it is true that a male using estrogen will lose muscle
strength and impair other aspects of his physiology, he does not
alter his genetics; he remains male at the cellular level in all
body systems.
Similarly, a female who self-identifies as male remains female,
and giving her testosterone does not transform her into a male. In
terms of genetics, she remains female at the cellular level.
These inherent sex-based differences also mean that females are
at higher risk of athletic injuries. For instance, stress fractures
involving the long bones of the legs in runners are more frequent in
females. Male athletes are far less susceptible due to their larger
and denser bones.
Taken together, these discrepancies render females, on average,
unable to compete effectively against males in power-based or en-
durance-based sports.
Science and common sense agree. When males are allowed to com-
pete in athletic leagues designed for females, they deprive girls
and women of the opportunity to safe and fair participation in
sports.
* These are the experts, not politicians. It is time to respect
God's creation and its intended limits.
Whatever is being done to pervert those limits has to stop.
Conservatively,
John
Conservativelyjohn.com 