Should Biological Men Be Allowed in Women’s Sports?
I started writing this last year but shelved it because I didn’t want to fall victim to any mob upset with differing opinions. But this debate has recently popped back up due to the speech linked in the tweet below. I think this is an important topic to discuss, and because I work with many young girls who play sports, I want to put my thoughts and experiences out there. I also have a daughter due in April, so it hit a little bit deeper when I started to think about it. This is an important debate and reaches far outside the realm of wins/losses in sports. Watch the video below before you read this.
Before I get any hate for this I’m going to start this off with one fact: I’m a libertarian and I would prefer the government doesn’t even exist, and I absolutely don’t want to have the government be in a position where it can tell consenting adults what to do with their lives. That being said, this isn’t a government policy issue, this is a sports organization governing body issue and this conversation needs to happen OUTSIDE of the purview of government intervention if we’re to make any headway on this topic.
The @NCAA should be ashamed and embarrassed by their horrific actions. We stand with you @Riley_Gaines_
— Coco 🇺🇸 (@CoClarified) February 17, 2023
pic.twitter.com/eaCTlOFHRN
Before we get going, this tweet is a video of Riley Gaines talking about her experience competing against trans swimmer Lia Thomas. It’s about 3 minutes long but I think it’s valuable to listen to those who are actually involved in these sports so we can have a better understanding of what’s at stake here.
Recently it seems like we cannot escape the tentacles of government policy talk. It used to be that we could escape the issues we’re faced with daily by tuning into a movie, a funny sitcom or our favorite professional sports team. Those days are long over and it seems like we’re constantly bombarded with different policy/cultural issues no matter where we turn. You can’t escape it and it’s making everyone an anxious mess throughout the day. There is ZERO reprieve from this kind of talk. Sports and entertainment used to be an escape for the masses, and if you look back at Ancient Rome, the Colosseum and the “games” played there were specifically designed to keep people distracted from whatever shady thing the government was trying to pull on the people. “Sports” have always been an escape for the masses, until now. Sports have now become an extension of the cultural war that we seem to be fighting in society and I for one, hate it. We’d be a lot better off if we let sports be about sports and let policy talk be policy talk, but here we are.
In saying all of this I don’t have issue with sports teams supporting causes as they have a huge reach. The NHL started their “hockey is for everyone” campaign and I don’t think anyone should have issue with that statement outside of the knuckle draggers who seem to be stuck in the past. Hockey, and sports of all kinds, are for everyone! Everyone should be able to enjoy playing and watching these competitions, and casting as wide a net as possible is a great thing for everyone involved. While there are people who get upset every time the NHL teams’ logos go rainbow colored for Pride Month and don’t like the message, the vast majority of people don’t care and are pretty accepting of the cause which is a testament to campaigns like the ones these organizations have every year. But we’re not here to talk about these campaigns, we’re here to talk about something else: Should biological men be allowed to compete in biological women’s divisions in sports? We’re not here to talk about whatever your thoughts are on trans individuals because your opinion on whether biological men can be women or biological women can be men is irrelevant to this conversation (just like mine), this is about the biology/physiology of biological men compared to biological women, and whether or not that has any impact on their ability to compete in these spaces.
Things to Clean Up First
We’re not here to talk about intersex individuals, they exist and have for as long as we’ve had an understanding of biology and obviously prior to that as well, we just didn’t know what it was. Intersex individuals make up roughly 0.018% of the population, while those who identify as trans represent about 0.58% of the adult population in the United States, or 1.4M individuals as of 2016. Now that was 6 years ago, and with the climate shifting more towards acceptance we probably have a higher percentage of the population identifying as trans as it’s more acceptable to do so today than it was in 2016. About 0.7% of the 18-24 age demographic identify as trans and that’s the population we’ll be focusing on here as that’s typically where the individuals wanting to compete are.
As stated above, I don’t care about your thoughts on whether or not trans individuals exist, whether they have a mental health disorder, if you’re “grossed out” by them or if you believe that grown adults should be able to do whatever they wish with their own lives/bodies. This IS NOT THAT KIND OF ARTICLE. We’re going to lay out the biological differences; from bone structure, to tendon strength, muscle mass and hormone levels because there’s a lot to take into account when we’re talking about this topic and the consequences of this debate are far reaching and impact people’s lives, and when discussing these kinds of topics I think it’s important to keep that in mind. These statistics aren’t just numbers, they’re living breathing human beings and I think we forget that when we’re discussing these topics so try to keep all that in mind!
A Few More Things to Keep in Mind
I think it’s absolutely ridiculous that I have to mention this more than once, but just because people question this topic does not mean that they’re transphobic, it doesn’t mean that they wish ill on trans individuals and it doesn’t mean that they wish to keep people from participating in athletics. I think it’s incredibly important to realize that just because someone has a different perspective than you do, it doesn’t mean that they have ulterior/hateful motives. Science demands questions and debate, it looks at the data and has to put feelings and emotions to the side in an effort to have a better understanding of the topic at hand. Science must be devoid of emotion if we’re going to be able to take an honest look at the data. Hell, I have trans friends/acquaintances (one who is fairly involved in athletics at the HIGHEST levels) and the last thing that I want for them is for them to be boxed out of society and/or the sports that they love. I think sports governing bodies have dropped the ball here but we’ll discuss that later in this article.
This debate is not one of gender. For this specific topic, let’s agree that gender and sex are different things. While I think the debate is a stupid one and mostly reserved for people who have entirely too much time on their hands, let’s agree to the following before going any further:
Sex will be defined as the following
the different biological and physiological characteristics of males and females, such as reproductive organs, chromosomes, hormones, etc
Gender will be defined as the following
the socially constructed characteristics of women and men – such as norms, roles and relationships of and between groups of women and men
For the purposes of this debate, let’s agree that we’re talking about sex and not gender. This has been on the “accepted” side of science for a little while now, and for the purposes of this particular debate let’s at least agree on that premise. Othewrwise we’re debating in bad faith.
I’ll say one last thing here before we get going here: don’t be an asshole when you’re having discussions on this topic. The vast majority of trans individuals just want to be accepted for who they are, and some of them wish to compete in sports and right now there’s just nowhere for them to compete. I don’t care what you think their motives are for competing, if you think they couldn’t win in the men’s division so they decided to become a woman so they could win or if you think their very existence in the space of athletics is just merely a political statement is irrelevant. I’m less concerned with motives here and much more concerned with the science, mainly the biology and physiology, along with the sports governing bodies completely neglecting their duties to the consumer. Plus, imagine thinking someone wants to win so badly, that they’ll become a societal pariah just to do so. You do not know people’s motives and attaching some kind of motive to someone’s actions without being inside their head is incredibly low rent, and it stifles legitimate debate on the topic. There’s no room for that here.
With all that being said let’s dive in.
Let’s Talk About Biology
We all took it back in high school although I’d be willing to bet very few of y’all paid any real attention but both sides of this argument have decided that they’re experts on the subject. Scrolling through my social media feeds all I see is “bUt ItS bIoLoGy” from both sides of this debate, and oddly enough NONE of what is being posted resembles any kind of biology. The actual definition of biology is:
the study of living organisms, divided into many specialized fields that cover their morphology, physiology, anatomy, behavior, origin, and distribution.
Oddly enough, your opinion isn’t part of that definition. Well if we look at it again, maybe…….. nope still not part of it. While this debate would be better off if everyone would just shut up and let the data do the talking, we’re left with the lowest common denominators spouting off their opinions on subjects that they have no real understanding of. You’ll hear
Trans Women ARE Women!
That dude couldn’t cut it against the men so now he’s a woman so he can win!
That dude’s got bigger balls than me! I could never compete against women!
And my personal favorite
ThE sCiEnCe Is SeTtLeD! (by it’s very definition, science is never settled)
None of the above is helpful, nor is it correct. If we want to get to the bottom of this debate we have to look at the actual data, and push your emotions to the side. Emotional debate is almost ALWAYS a bad idea, and people who have no skin in the game can typically take a more objective look at the situation and separate the emotion from the data. We’re going to attempt to do that here.
Male is the sex of an organism that produces the gamete known as sperm. Male mammals, including humans, carry a Y chromosome which will code the production of higher levels of testosterone and create male reproductive organs in utero. This is due to what we call the sex determination system, your genetic coding will produce certain hormones, which in turn will create certain sex characteristics. Female is the sex of an organism that produces the large non-motile ova. Female mammals, including humans, carry two X chromosomes which will code the production of female reproductive organs in utero. The sex determination system also dictates the genetic coding for female sex characteristics such as pronounced mammary glands. This is the biology, this is the science. Yes, intersex people exist however they are very much statistical outliers, they make up less than 0.02% of the population so for the purpose of this debate we’ll be focusing on the other 99.98% of the population.
Intersex individuals are those who are born with both male and female characteristics. These characteristics include chromosome patterns, gonads and genitals that do not fit typical binary notions of male or female bodies according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. When you hear about sex being assigned at birth and you want to roll your eyes, understand that intersex individuals are legitimately assigned a sex at birth. Intersex individuals are born with ambiguous genitals and conditions in which chromosomal sex is inconsistent with phenotypic sex, or in which the phenotype is not classifiable as either male or female. The families make the decision to raise the child as either male or female. These individuals make up roughly .018% of the population according to all available data.
Using the exception to justify the rule doesn’t work when we’re talking about data and scientific debate. In turn, using intersex individuals to justify trans peoples’ existence is stupid, because they’re completely different things. Almost no one involved in this is debating the fact that trans people do in fact, exist. So let’s start off with the truths stated above, otherwise we’ll never be able to come to any kind of consensus.
Testosterone Matters
I’m sure you’ve heard of this word before, but do you know what it really is? Testosterone is the hormone in the body that signals many biological processes to include but not limited to the following:
Regulates sex drive/libido
Increased bone density
Decreased fat distribution in the body
Increased muscle mass
Increased strength
Increased aggression
Production of red blood cells
Production of sperm
Increased tendon strength
Testoseterone is present in both men and women but is much higher in those with XY chromosomes (men). Testosterone is the hormone responsible for the biggest diferences between men and women. Testosterone is the reason we have mens and womens divisions in sport.
Adult men typically have testosterone levels that fall between 265 and 923 ng/dL (nanograms per deciliter). Adult women have substantially lower levels that usually fall between 15-70 ng/dL. This means that men who sit on the lower end of the spectrum still hold an advantage of rouighly 4 times the testosterone levels of women on the highest end of testosterone. That is a HUGE advantage when we’re talking about the hormone responsible for red blood cell production (higher VO2 max), muscle mass (strength and size), aggression, body fat levels, and bone density.
Testosterone is actually a relatively interesting hormone in that during adolescence this is completely flipped. Young girls have much higher testosterone levels than their male counterparts. From ages 7-10 young girls have testosterone levels somewhere between 2.7 and 10.3 ng/dL while their male counterparts sit between 1.8 and 5.7 ng/dL. You ever wonder why young ladies are much more athletic than the boys? This plays a large role.
This testosterone advantage that young girls have over the boys flip during the teenage years when boys and girls hit puberty. From ages 13-18 young men have testosterone levels that fall between 210-497 ng/dL while young women have between 16.7 and 31.55 ng/dL. There’s a chart below that breaks all of that down.
With an understanding of everything testosterone is responsible for, hopefully, you can appreciate how large of an advantage biological men have over women. From increased red blood cell count, to higher bone density, to more strength and overall muscle mass, biological men hold a serious advantage over biological women and that’s why we have sports broken down into categories concerning sex. It’s literally biology.
Testosterone gives people such an advantage that sports governing bodies have banned their use in sports. The government has even made their use illegal. We’ve had two separate times when athletes were paraded in front of congress so that members of congress could pretend to care about the example these athletes are setting for children. The first time was when Ben Johnson had the audacity to beat Carl Lewis in the 88 Olympic Games in Seoul, Korea. The second time was when Victor Conte’s “the clear’ and “the cream” found their way into professional athletes’ hands. We’ll talk more about this later in this article.
Estrogen - Testosterone to Estrogen Ratio
We’ve gone over testosterone and the advantages it can give athletes and men in general. Estrogen is the hormone that dominates women’s hormonal signaling. Estrogen is pretty different from testosterone, and for good reason. Estrogen is responsible for primary and secondary sex characteristics in women. Estrogen is responsible for the following:
Breast tissue growth
Increases in fat mass
Menses
Libido
Ovary maturation
Feminization of voice
It can protect the heart from cholesterol
Women and men both have estrogen, it’s necessary for life just like testosterone is. However, there is a difference in both the amount of estrogen as well as the testosterone to estrogen ratio. In men, a healthy testosterone to estrogen ratio sits right around 3.48:1. This means that healthy men have somewhere around 3.5 times more testosterone than they do estrogen in their bodies. It can be much higher but this is a typical/average number for most healthy men. Women tend to have a higher estrogen to testosterone ratio, so you can think of the numbers being inverted but to a much higher degree.
Adult biological women have estrogen levels between 30-400 pg/mL (picograms per milliliter). After menopause women’s estrogen levels drop to between 0 and 30 pg/mL. Adult biological men have between 10-50 pg/mL of estrogen.
While men don’t have ovaries to produce estrogen, they do have an enzyme called aromatase that convert male steroid hormones (androstenedione) into estrogen when levels are too high. Women also have this enzyme but it’s not quite as active since their testosterone levels aren’t nearly as high. This enzyme is why some men take breast cancer medications when they’re using androgenic/anabolic steroids, it prohibits the conversion of this extra testosterone to estrogen. This conversion/process is regulated in a way that healthy biological men will continue to enjoy a roughly 3.5 to 1 ratio of testosterone most of the time. Why is this important?
Well, average men not on anabolic/androgenic steroids actually enjoy a significant hormonal advantage over even women who are on anabolic/androgenic steroids. If you look at the testosterone to estrogen ratios of woman who are on a moderate amount of gear (anabolics), they still won’t enjoy this ratio of 3.5:1. They would have to be on a serious amount of steroids to enjoy the benefits most men walk around with every day. It’s not fair but what are ya gonna do? It’s biology and life isn’t fair.
To understand why this ratio is important understand that estrogen and testosterone are competing signals in the body. One is telling you to deposit less fat and grow more muscle while the other is telling you to deposit more fat and stunts muscle growth. This ratio of testosterone to estrogen is nearly as important as the amount of testosterone in your body. Women simply cannot compete with even the average male as far as hormones are concerned.
Hormone Replacement
When biological men transition to transwomen they undergo hormone therapy. Because the differences in hormone profiles between men and women are so great, it’s necessary to essentially replace these more masculine hormones when more feminine hormones. Estrogen is the primary hormone, but they also go on testosterone blockers and estradiol. Estradiol is basically a more potent estrogen, it’s responsible for most of the secondary sex characteristic development when going thought puberty.
Most of these transitions start off with testosterone blockers by themselves, and later add estrogen. These testosterone blockers bring the testosterone to estrogen ratio down so that when estrogen is inserted into the hormone schedule they can start to develop more feminine characteristics without having to fight the effects of their natural testosterone.
This hormone replacement “transition” therapy is designed to feminize the biological man so they can present as feminine/female/a woman. The argument from supporters of transwomen competing against biological women is that this hormone replacement therapy negates the effects of testosterone so it becomes an even playing field. The issue? The data doesn’t support this.
Transwomen maintain their bone density (oddly enough estrogen actually helps solidify bone density which was higher from testosterone), increased tensile strength in the muscles and tendons, and increased muscle fiber recruitment patterns. This study showed that even after 36 months of hormone replacement therapy transwomen still enjoyed an advantage over biological women where lean body mass and strength were concerned. The only areas transwomen did not maintain an advantage were hemoglobin and hematocrit levels, which means their red blood cell count came down to the levels of biological women.
Hormone replacement therapy can feminize biological males, however, it can’t bring their physiological and biological advantages to a place where it is a level playing field against biological women.
Where’s Congress?
I know at the beginning of this article I mentioned that I don’t believe in a government solution to this situation, and I still don’t. BUT the government tends to get its greasy hands on everything contentious in an effort to divide everyone so why would this be any different?
The reason I say “where is congress?” is Title IX. Title IX was a big step for women’s opportunities in sports. Title IX was molded based on Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to ensure women got the same opportunities as their male counterparts when it came to education. In addition to other services and opportunities, this also included women’s access to sports at the educational level (middle and high school and university). They now legally had to have equal opportunity. Awesome!
But recently it seems like congress has no interest in dealing with this issue. Much like the sports governing bodies, they don’t want to have to take a stance here. Their inability to make a decision one way or the other here is having real consequences for both young women, and our culture in general. I’m not taking a stance from a cultural perspective here, but you can’t deny that transwomen competing in biological womens’ sports is having a negative impact on our culture as a whole.
Take Joe Biden. Here is a video of him complaining about steroid use in sports and how it’s unfair because he could have played pro ball “iF iT wAsN’t FoR aLl ThE GuYs TaKiNg StErOiDs!” who took that opportunity away from him. He actually almost called them bastards, but that’s crazy uncle Joe for ya. It took some digging to find but watch it all the way through. It’s only about 2 minutes.
Just an aside here kids, all the adults you know who “could have made it” if it wasn’t for politics or an injury of some kind are full of it. The chances of making it to the top levels of sport are almost nonexistent for 99.9% of the population and an injury wouldn’t have taken them out of the running. They may have been good, but they weren’t THAT good.
So the president of the United States was wholeheartedly against gaining a hormonal advantage over another opponent because it was “UnAmerican”. Where’s he at now? Well, on his first day in office, he decided to sign an executive order preventing discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity, which on the surface sounds like a really good thing. But, this legislation made the water dealing with trans athletes in sports at the college level really muddy. He actually touted this as being something to strengthen Title IX, which has historically been seen as a win for biological women. I don’t see it.
So with congress and the White House unwilling to deal with this, we’re left with the sports governing bodies to deal with it.
The Buck Stops With Governing Bodies for Sport
If you recall about a year ago, we were all arguing about Lia Thomas and whether or not a biological male should be competing against women in swimming at the NCAA level. There was also the case of Laurel Hubbard competing in Olympic Weightlifting at the Olympics. The NCAA and the Olympic Committee allowed it but do you know why? Let’s dive into that.
The above video is an explanation of the new rules the Olympic Committee put into effect just a few months ago. While I can actually appreciate allowing individual sports governing bodies to make their own decisions, the Olympic Committee is just passing the buck because they don’t want to be the bad guys. They don’t want the mob coming after them. The NCAA has done the same thing, and because of this Lia Thomas was allowed to compete at the NCAA level against biological women and win a national championship. Apparently, the International Swimming Federation decided that they didn’t want to be the bad guy either.
Here’s the thing, I understand not wanting to be the bad guy and wanting to be as inclusive as possible. Nobody (well almost nobody) wants to box people out of any aspect of life, sports included. Sports are for everyone! But these sports governing bodies have completely lost the plot here. We’ve gone over the biological advantages men have over women, and the biological advantages transwomen have over biological women. These governing bodies have decided that it isn’t worth it to secure young girls’ and women’s place in sports because they don’t want the backlash of doing so.
Another factor is that they don’t want to deal with creating “open” categories because financially it’s a loser for them. There’s no money to be made in an “open” category because the men would compete against the men, and biological women would compete against biological women. There just simply aren’t enough trans athletes yet to create an entirely new category. Make no mistake about it, these organizations are all about making their money. Does anyone remember FIFA deciding Qatar was the best place for the World Cup? How many palms were greased in making that decision? There just isn’t a financial incentive to do it. In fact, there are many financial reasons not to do so.
Women fought incredibly hard for access to the same opportunities as men, and allowing transwomen to compete in sports against biological women is a slap in the face to each and every young girl who ever picks up a hockey stick, basketball, softball, volleyball, tennis racquet, etc and fell in love with the sport. It takes away opportunities and experiences from these young girls and women. I’m not being hyperbolic when I say this but it’s a travesty.
But What About the Transwomen?
I get it, I really do. And you know what? I don’t have to look these transwomen in the face and tell them that they cannot compete. I don’t have to be that bad guy so it’s a lot easier for me to sit here and say these things. I have a daughter due in April and I would LOVE for her to get involved in sports but I’ll be damned if she’s forced to play against young men when she’s in high school. I’ll be damned if she’s forced to share a locker room with someone with fully intact male genitalia. I’ll be damned if she has opportunities taken away from her by someone she shouldn’t be forced to compete against. Someone who from every biological and physiological perspective has an advantage over her.
Outside of “open” categories I don’t know that I have an answer to this particular problem. I don’t know that it’s solvable in a way that everyone can agree to and be ok giving some concessions. I don’t want to box people out of society, but I don’t think opportunity should be taken away from biological women in an effort to “make things fair” for transwomen. We’re not just talking about spots on the high school volleyball team here. We’re talking about college scholarships, spots on Olympic teams and eventually spots in professional sports when women’s pro sports grows to what they’re capable of.
What I do know is that transwomen hold many biological and physiological advantages over biological women, and because of that, in my opinion, transwomen should not be allowed to compete in women’s sports.
I implore you to do your own research and seek out unbiased sources on this subject. Don’t take my word for it, don’t take the talking heads’ word for it, and for sure don’t take your political leaders’ word for it (or on anything). Go out there and dig into all of it so you can make your own decision. I think part of this very problem is that many of us lack the prerequisite knowledge to even have an opinion on this subject.
