A Study commissioned by the International Olympic Committee and the University of Brighton found that while trans women are stronger in some respects, like grip strength, cis women have stronger lower bodies.
The study also found that trans women have a similar bone density as their cis women counterparts, which rebuts a frequent refrain from conservatives who’ve argued otherwise to justify banning trans girls and women from sports.
All the participants in this study participated in competitive sports or took part in physical training at least three times a week. The 35 trans athletes had to have completed at least one consecutive year of hormone replacement therapy.
Researchers invited 23 trans women and 12 trans men to undergo a series of performance tests in laboratory conditions, while also putting 21 cis women and 19 cis men through the same tests.
In certain cardiovascular tests, the trans women performed worse than the cis women, and were found to have less lower-body strength, according to the study published Wednesday in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
Lead researcher Professor Yannis Pitsiladis told Outsports “the main takeaway message is the requirement of international federations (and their “experts”) to treat trans women very differently to cis men.”
