<font color=yellow>IOC gives go-ahead for transsexuals to compete</font>

<font color=white>LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) -- Transsexuals were cleared Monday to compete in the Olympics for the first time.

Under a proposal approved by the IOC executive board, athletes who have undergone sex-change surgery will be eligible for the Olympics if their new gender has been legally recognized and they have gone through a minimum two-year period of postoperative hormone therapy.

The decision, which covers both male-to-female and female-to-male cases, goes into effect starting with the Athens Olympics in August.

The IOC had put off a decision in February, saying more time was needed to consider all the medical issues.

Some members had been concerned whether male-to-female transsexuals would have physical advantages competing against women.

Men have higher levels of testosterone and greater muscle-to-fat ratio and heart and lung capacity. However, doctors say, testosterone levels and muscle mass drop after hormone therapy and sex-change surgery.

IOC spokeswoman Giselle Davies said the situation of transsexuals competing in high-level sports was "rare but becoming more common."

IOC medical director Patrick Schamasch said no specific sports had been singled out by the ruling.

"Any sport may be touched by this problem," he said. "Until now, we didn't have any rules or regulations. We needed to establish some sort of policy."

Until 1999, the IOC conducted gender verification tests at the Olympics but the screenings were dropped before the 2000 Sydney Games.

One of the best known cases of transsexuals in sports involves Renee Richards, formerly Richard Raskin, who played on the women's tennis tour in the 1970s.

In March, Australia's Mianne Bagger became the first transsexual to play in a pro golf tournament.

Michelle Dumaresq, formerly Michael, has competed in mountain bike racing for Canada.


Copyright 2004 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.</font>

<font color=deepskyblue>Personally, I would have thought the required hormone therapy would have eliminated transsexuals from being eligible for the Olympics. Guess not. The point about former men competing head-to-head against women is also interesting.</font>

I see a whole new professional arena opening up. [img]graemlins/repuke.gif[/img]

Aaaah, the decline of world civilization.

Or at least for standards in athletics.

[ 05-18-2004, 12:00 PM: Message edited by: Khazadman Risen ]

My grand reaction: So?

If this has been cleared apparently the therapy and surgery makes the transformation complete enough to not make a difference. I would say that the ones making the decisions are more informed on the issue than most of us are, no?

And if a horde of transexuals starts winning the Olympics because of unfair advantages or whatever, they'll change the rules again. Simple as that.

Maybe a new transexual army? No more arguments about women in combat!

The IOC is kind of slow. I remember for awhile, they would ban women and men athletes for having different chromosomes (something like 1 in 1000 women are born naturally with XXY.) They're not a brilliant organisation.

I don't have a moral problem with them competing, but I may have a fair play issue. I am in an intense hockey training program right now, and I can tell you that I have a natural physical advantage, in terms of strength, over the girls in my group. Don't get me wrong, they can overcome it with more work, but I have more of a natural gift. I wonder if it's really fair if a man gets really bulked up, to the point he can compete in the Olympics, and then has a sex change. What about the natural women, who are inherently put at a disadvantage?

What sort of standards? We'll wait and see how transexual athletes perform before we say whether standards have changed shall we?

<font color=deepskyblue>According to the article, the two years of required hormone therapy after the operation is supposed to eliminate - or at least minimize - the natural physical advantage men have over women.

As I said, my surprise was that the hormone therapy did not disqualify the athletes automatically. But I guess hormone therapy is not the same as "perfomance enhancement".</font>

That was partly a general statement, and partly directed at Khazadman, Cerek. I understood what you said, but thanks anyway for clarifying.

<font color=deepskyblue>According to the article, the two years of required hormone therapy after the operation is supposed to eliminate - or at least minimize - the natural physical advantage men have over women.

As I said, my surprise was that the hormone therapy did not disqualify the athletes automatically. But I guess hormone therapy is not the same as "perfomance enhancement".</font> </font>[/QUOTE]Well, maybe i can try to explain this, allthough i'm not a transexual, i am in sports and play at a high enough level that i can get checked for 'performance enhancing' drugs.

These hormones are natural hormones. Ie the human body makes these too. A women has more oestrogen then a man and a man has more testosterone then a women. If they give the transexual a hormone treatment, he or she (as the case may be) has the normal amount of hormones in the body.

Besides it's not as if a man is taking these to enhance it's performance among men.

Ugh, hope this made sense. I sometimes can't make heads or tails from this anti doping stuff.

[ 05-19-2004, 03:46 AM: Message edited by: the new JR Jansen ]

Coming from anyone else I would have assumed this to be sarcasm.

But then you're assuming a man would undergo a sex change for such a shallow reason, and hence completely missing the point of it. People get sex changes because they feel deeply unhappy in their own bodies, because the gender they were born with feels inherently wrong to them, because they are men/women trapped in women's/men's bodies respectively. I doubt any of them would have competing in the Olympics foremost on their minds when they decided to undergo surgery/hormonal treatment. In fact, a man who feels he really was supposed to be a woman and considers a sex change would NEVER "bulk up" - he'd resent his masculinity and would definitely not try to increase it by training his muscles.

For the rest I'm sort of with you - I don't have moral issues with it, but there may be fair play issues. But then again, muscle/build is not all there is to being successful in sports: there's also dedication, talent, training. So in that sense a post-sex change man does not have a headstart per se.

Incidentally, is anyone here 'in the know' concerning male/female cellular makeup? Will hormone therapy really make a significant difference to body shape and size? Or will transgender females (formerly males) be naturally 'solid'? (likewise will 'changed' males be slender?)

But then you're assuming a man would undergo a sex change for such a shallow reason, and hence completely missing the point of it. People get sex changes because they feel deeply unhappy in their own bodies, because the gender they were born with feels inherently wrong to them, because they are men/women trapped in women's/men's bodies respectively. I doubt any of them would have competing in the Olympics foremost on their minds when they decided to undergo surgery/hormonal treatment. In fact, a man who feels he really was supposed to be a woman and considers a sex change would NEVER "bulk up" - he'd resent his masculinity and would definitely not try to increase it by training his muscles.
</font>[/QUOTE]I don't think I said that that would necessarily be the reason for the sex change. What I mean is, to get to the Olympic level, an athlete must have trained for years. Since in most countries, AFAIK, you have to be at least 18 to be able to consent to this operation (despite a recent ruling in Australia, where the psychological and hormonal treatments can begin at 12 and 16, respectively,) that means that men->women will have been training at a male level of high intensity for several years, so their body would have, presumably, bulked up like a man's (which I think is the primary physiological difference.) Now, I don't know whether the pre-operation hormonal therapy would reduce this, but it seems to me that the male->female would keep all of the bulk throughout the operation. I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with the motivation or anything, not that I'm really an expert, but the fairplay might be an issue.

I do agree that the psychological aspects are just as important, and if it's any consolation, most of the women I see are far more capable at that than their male counterparts. Most women play sheerly for the joy of the sport and competing, whereas guys tend to get caught up in the celebrity, sex-symbol status that some of them get.

Fair enough. Although I've read articles about this, my country is fairly advanced in sex change operations (in fact the foremost hospital doing them is connected to my university). And at least where I live, it sometimes happens that a young child already displays a deepseated need to belong to the opposite sex. They get counselling and most of them "grow over it" but some are extremely certain of being in the wrong body and for them it is actually possible to get hormonal treatments that postpone puberty (so their physique, in the case of males, will not be very developed or masculine). Then at an older age when they are considered to be capable of the decision, they have a full sex change. So in those cases at least there is no chance for the young boy's body to develop masculine characteristics before the surgery.

But in any case, sex changes are still quite rare and transgender people capable of competing in the Olypics even more so ;) so it really isn't such a big issue. :D

I shall look forward to seeing Evonne Gooliesgone in the mens tennis [img]smile.gif[/img]

"Even more so"? You don't think men that want to be women, in general, kick ass at, say, boxing?

Hm... maybe i should consider surgery.... i might have a shot at the gold in womens wrestling. If that doesn't work out, i could always prostitute myself and make loads of money. :D

[ 05-20-2004, 04:49 PM: Message edited by: johnny ]

I find it a bit disturbing that you actually consider these kind of things just to win or make money, johnny. Have you no shame? ;)

I find it a bit disturbing that he'd think he'd make a good female whore :/

Not really. [img]graemlins/hehe.gif[/img]