Here’s the thing, I don’t really have a position. I was asking questions because I don’t understand. To me it seems like there are physical advantages of going through puberty as a male and those advantages persist for a period of time. My brief googling from several different sources backed that up but I’m certainly not an expert. There also never seems to be any situations of FTM people excelling at sports like is reported of MTF. Happy to accept that might be a media bias issue. I also don’t have any real ideological positions. Trans people are people and deserve to be treated as such I have no issue with that. I can only imagine the amount of pain and suffering they have to go through. There just seems to be a lot of “trust me bro” type responses and down votes to any questions which in my opinion doesn’t help the situation.
Thank you for taking the time to reply in detail. That study makes for an interesting read although as you mention, it does highlight that there are statisticaly significant differences both positive and negative. I’ll admit that I don’t like the way the conclusion is written in that it only covers negative or neutral aspects and ignores or ‘normalises’ the positive aspects behind body mass. Normalised performance is relevant for weight class sports but if trans men are generally bigger and therefore stronger overall then it becomes a bit moot. The Absolute Average Power and peak power values in the reports correction are pretty significant. This may very well be offset by the other negative impacts listed such as CV fitness etc
As you said, it’s a relatively narrow lens that makes it difficult to expand to a wider view.
You do make a very good point about performance vs participation and it does suggest a conclusion that any differences ballance each other out.
I’d like to see a study that could confirm that as it would be great evidence to show relative performance equality.
The low number of trans athletes (yes I’m aware of the irony/difficulty) would make such a study difficult. Maybe the default position should be to let all trans people compete to allow for such studies.
On a personal note I hope you get to play the sports you love and that the world becomes more accepting. I wouldn’t hesitate to play (im too old and unfit to compete at anything!) with you or have my child compete against/with a trans person.