ZackCapets wrote:
The hormonal aspect has got to be the hardest part to legislate/ enforce. What's fair? Letting someone use T to reach low-normal, "average", high-normal, whatever their doctor says is " healthy" for them?
i actually just recently read some articles about a MTF who was a pretty good runner and tracked her progress during transition. she found that once she started hormones, (estrogen, killing off the testosterone) at the same fitness, the same body weight, the same everything, she lost 6 minutes (in the event she tracked). she continued tracking and keeping data. it was a fascinating read because I always ASSumed that simply having had been male you had HUGE benefit there but it is actually the opposite - once HRT begins you are now stuck with this massive (male by comparison) body and lack of muscles (as the lack of T decreases teh previous male muscle mass) to move it. So your body now becomes an albatross you no longer have the old ability to excel with. In his 40s she was a 40ish 10k'er and while the HRT moved fat around she kept the same weight and fitness. i was really surprised because I expected the opposite.
she still runs with herold pals but can no longer hold the paces she used to so either they have to slow down for her or they drop her. fascinating read. I think it was at Lets run but maybe not. Something about 6 minutes. let me see... Ah!
http://www.runnersworld.com/...fference?page=single From the article:
"The gender-to-performance linkage, in other words, is real. What happened to Janet should come as no surprise to anybody who understands what sex hormones do, Brown says; among their many other tasks inside the body, estrogen stimulates the storage of body fat, and testosterone stimulates both the building of muscle and the production of hemoglobin, which carries oxygen to the lungs and muscles, and so increases endurance. For any athlete who requires endurance, along with muscle strength and speed, being hormonally female appears to be a genuine biological handicap. "Even though she looks the same, and maybe weighs the same, the composition is not likely to be the same," Brown says. "You lose muscle, so you're losing power, and you're gaining fat, which you have to carry around. And you're carrying a male skeleton." Bigger than a female skeleton, that is, and heavier to haul up the trail—but with internal chemistry suddenly inadequate to the task. Says Georgia State University exercise physiologist David Martin, who also serves on the USATF task force: "The transgender athlete probably has a disadvantage, rather than an advantage."'
http://harvestmoon6.blogspot.com https://www.caringbridge.org/visit/katasmit