Roger-Luc Chayer (Photo : Lia Thomas by Hunter Martin / Getty Images)
Debate on the Trans Issue in Sports: A Highly Emotional Topic
Addressing the trans issue is a subject of extreme emotion for many people and it divides society in general, including the LGB communities. Discussing this topic almost always provokes very aggressive, sometimes violent reactions, as if it were impossible to debate it without descending into verbal inflation, and I am not the only one to notice this.
However, with the Milan Olympic Games approaching in a few days, the question is resurfacing and it is important to explain its origins.
The Issue of Transgender Women in Sports
The trans issue in sports seems to concern primarily transgender women, that is, people assigned male at birth who, through medical and hormonal treatments as well as changes in certain lifestyle habits, have become women. The sticking point raised by some female teams is always the same: has a person who grew up with significantly higher levels of male hormones, especially testosterone, than women, and who has transitioned to become a woman, developed a physical advantage that favors her?
Role of Male Hormones in Physical Development
The so-called male hormones, primarily testosterone, play a decisive role in physical development during puberty and adulthood, and this is the central issue when a transition takes place after this period. Under the influence of high testosterone levels during adolescence, the body generally develops greater muscle mass, increased bone density, a different skeletal structure—particularly in height, shoulder width, and limb length—as well as often superior pulmonary and cardiovascular capacity. These characteristics can constitute advantages in many sports disciplines, especially those relying on strength, power, speed, or endurance.
Effects of Hormonal Transition in Adulthood
When the transition to female occurs in adulthood accompanied by feminizing hormone treatment, testosterone levels drop sharply, and muscle mass and strength tend to decrease over time. However, some adaptations acquired during male puberty are not fully reversible. Height, bone structure, the length of biomechanical levers, and certain cardiovascular parameters largely remain unchanged. It is on this partial persistence of past testosterone effects that arguments for a potential advantage rely.
Variability of Effects and Regulatory Framework
It is essential to specify that these effects vary significantly from one person to another and depending on the duration, intensity, and timing of hormonal transition. Moreover, current sports policies seek to regulate these issues by setting hormonal thresholds and minimum periods of testosterone suppression precisely to reduce these disparities. The debate, therefore, is not only about gender identity but about how to assess, discipline by discipline, the residual impact of development under male hormones on competitive fairness.
The Case of Lia Thomas and Its Media Impact
The debate surrounding Lia Thomas crystallized around the issue of sports equity rather than gender identity. An American collegiate swimmer, Lia Thomas began her transition after competing for several years in NCAA men’s competitions, before joining women’s competitions after hormone treatment compliant with the rules in effect at the time. Her performances, notably her victory in the 500-yard freestyle in 2022, immediately attracted media attention and caused intense polarization.
Her supporters argue that Lia Thomas strictly followed NCAA regulations, including testosterone thresholds and the minimum duration of hormone treatment, and thus should be allowed to compete like any other trans woman. They also point out that her results, though high, were not consistently dominant and that she had also recorded more modest rankings in other events, which, according to them, contradicts the idea of an overwhelming advantage.
Conversely, her detractors believe that having gone through male puberty conferred persistent physical advantages, notably in terms of height, power, and biomechanics, which hormone suppression only partially mitigates. Several competing swimmers expressed discomfort, stating the issue was not ideological but related to competitive fairness and the protection of women’s sports.
The « Lia Thomas affair » went beyond the collegiate level to influence international sports bodies. Shortly after, World Aquatics tightened its rules by limiting access to women’s competitions to athletes who have not undergone male puberty while creating an open category.
Transition Before or During Puberty: A Solution for Fairness?
Transitioning before or during puberty can largely resolve the question of physical advantages linked to male hormones.
When hormonal transition begins before puberty—such as with suppression of male sex hormones (testosterone) followed by feminizing hormone treatment—the body does not undergo the typical changes of male puberty. This means the person does not develop the physical characteristics usually associated with male hormones, such as greater muscle mass, higher bone density, a broader skeletal structure, or superior pulmonary capacity.
In this context, the transgender woman will have a physical development closer to that of cisgender girls, which considerably limits questions of physical advantage in sports competition.
That is why several international sports federations today distinguish between those who began their transition before puberty and those who started afterward, with stricter rules for the latter to preserve fairness in women’s competitions.
This question remains complex, as medical, legal, and ethical criteria surrounding prepubertal transition vary widely between countries, and the protection of the rights of transgender children and adolescents is itself a topic of ongoing debate. We will revisit this…
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