WhatsNew2Day – Latest News And Breaking Headlines
Doctors say transgender youth should be allowed to compete in women’s sports at the school and college level to protect their health.
Researchers at Vanderbilt University, Tennessee, said participating in sports had many benefits, including improving mental health, self-esteem and reducing the risk of obesity and chronic diseases.
They advocated for trans people to be allowed to compete in their desired gender category in elementary school, middle school, high school, and college. But they admitted that competitive sports were a different matter because the participants had invested their entire careers in the game.
They warned that a wave of 22 bans on transgender athletes at schools and universities was harming the group’s physical and mental health and deterring them from competing in sports.
In an interview, lead author and sports medicine expert Dr. Alexander Sin said, “Does it matter who gets a medal in a third-grade competition?”
Researchers at Vanderbilt University, Tennessee, said participating in sports had many benefits, including increasing mental health, self-esteem and reducing the risk of chronic diseases (file image). Pictured above are Lia Thomas, center, Iszak Henig, left, and Nikki Venema after Ms. Thomas won the 100-yard freestyle at the Ivy League women’s swimming and diving championships in February of last year.
Tara Seplavy, center, photographed atop the podium after winning a bicycle race in Pennsylvania. Maya Brothers, who came in second, didn’t mind losing to a trans woman. But third-place competitor Jaqueline Paull (right) seems to have gotten upset.
According to estimates, about 300,000 13- to 17-year-olds in the United States are transgender, equal to 1.7 percent of the high school population. Of them, about half are biological men who identify as women.
Write an opinion article for JAMA PediatricsThe researchers urged transgender youth to participate in sports, as well as have the ability to compete.
They said primary care sports medicine doctors, pediatricians and families should take an “active role” in promoting this.
The research team was from Vanderbilt University, which is currently under fire for allegedly sharing the medical records of transgender adults with the state without redacting their identities. A federal investigation has been launched and some of those affected allege that the state had requested the information in an effort to “negatively target the transgender community.”
One researcher was also from the University of Rochester, New York, which has also sparked controversy for offering a “gender-affirming” mindfulness course for teachers who have students as young as five. He has been accused of training local school staff in “transgender ideology.”
When asked if trans women have an advantage over biological women in an interview with Statistical newsDr Sin said: ‘(Some research has found that) trans women are superior to cis women due to certain strengths and measures of speed.
‘But the problem with this is that it doesn’t translate into sporting performance.
“It’s not that you bend over more and that translates into jumping higher, or that you can bench press heavier, so you can throw things further.
“There are also techniques and other aspects that influence, because otherwise the strongest person would win all the medals, and that is not true.”
Society is divided over whether transgender athletes should be allowed to compete in women’s sports.
However, when Lia Thomas became the first openly transgender athlete to win the women’s 500-yard freestyle in March 2022, the issue was thrown wide open. She was 1.75 seconds faster than Olympic silver medalist Emma Weyant.
Some people, including some doctors, suggest that transgender athletes should be allowed to compete in the spirit of supporting the group, adding that any advantage they have is eliminated or minimized through hormonal therapies.
This also applies to older children aged eight to 13, who will have gone through puberty when the body takes on the characteristics of their biological sex.
It is not clear whether children who begin therapy before or during puberty retain the same advantages.
But now studies are starting to pile up suggesting that even a decade after starting hormone therapy, transgender athletes retain an advantage.
A 2021 article from British Journal of Sports Medicine They found that transgender women were still 12 percent faster than their biological counterparts two years after starting feminizing hormone therapy.
They also found that transgender men were 15 percent slower and could do 43 percent fewer push-ups than their biological rivals.
The paper involved 29 transgender men and 46 transgender women who completed aptitude tests for the Air Force.
Another study published late last year found that they were still stronger than biological women even after a decade of hormone treatment.
The map above shows states that have enacted policies banning transgender women from competing in women’s sports at the school level.
TO review published in August 2022 also suggested that transgender women had a biological advantage over their peers.
It concluded: “Given that sports are currently segregated into men’s and women’s divisions due to superior male athletic performance, and that estrogen therapy will not reverse most athletic performance parameters, it follows that transgender women will enter the women’s division.” with an inherent advantage due to their earlier male physiology.
Many states are beginning to restrict transgender youth’s access to women’s sports.
A total of 22 states have enacted laws banning transgender youth from participating in sports.
At the state athletic association level, seven state athletic associations have also banned participation in transgender sports, either limiting participation based on the sex assigned at birth or requiring gender reassignment surgery in states where the surgery is not available to minors.
Sports participation offers many benefits to young people to improve their physical health while helping to form friendships with their peers.