More or Less Transgender women in sport: Does ‘comparable’ mean ‘equal’?
26 snips
Mar 14, 2026 
Professor Alun Williams, sports scientist at Manchester Metropolitan University, explains physiological sex differences and critiques the evidence. Tom Colls, investigative reporter, unpacks the systematic review and its limits. They discuss hormone therapy effects, problems with unmatched studies, cross-sectional versus longitudinal evidence, and the need for better long-term research.
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Why Sexed Categories Exist In Sport
- Men and women typically compete separately because men have measurable advantages in height, muscle mass, strength and endurance.
- Professor Alun Williams highlights a large evidence base explaining those physiological differences and why separate categories exist.
Hormone Treatment Changes But Magnitude Matters
- Hormone therapy for transgender women reduces testosterone and typically lowers muscle mass and strength, but the key question is the magnitude of those declines.
- Alan Williams frames the central issue as whether reductions remove the male physiological advantage sufficiently for fairness.
Review Not New Tests But Pooled Studies
- The paper under discussion is a systematic review that combines many small studies rather than new direct testing of athletes.
- The review reported transgender women had more lean mass but said overall fitness measures were 'comparable'.