Transsexual athletes who compete against women are “feminized males rather than true females”, an American professor has warned.
Speaking to Fox News, Dr Paul Hruz cautioned that “there are many aspects of fundamental biology that don’t change” when athletes take hormone-suppressing drugs.
Transsexual people often take these drugs or have hormone injections to change their physical appearance.
‘Feminised males’
In 2016, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) weakened its guidelines on transsexual athletes to allow women who live as men to “compete in the male category without restriction”.
And men who are living as women must now prove they have below a set level of testosterone for at least twelve months before a competition.
However, Dr Hruz, who is an endocrinologist and Associate Professor at the Washington University School of Medicine, described the IOC’s decision as “questionable”.
He said, “there are many other components of being a man or a woman. And so, if you take a male and you suppress their testosterone and give them estrogen, they really, from a biological standpoint are still feminized males rather than true females”.
‘Concern’
Dr Hruz added that there is a “lot of concern” in the medical profession over the growing number of children who are using such drugs.
The professor believes that social affirmation of gender-confused children is influencing their developmental trajectory and “needs to be investigated”.
Last month, he warned against using hormone-suppressing drugs to encourage gender-confused children to “transition”.
‘Not even’
Earlier this year, the New Zealand Olympic team was criticised for allowing a transsexual weightlifter to compete in an international competition.
Laurel Hubbard, a 39-year-old man who is living as a woman, won gold in the over 90kg division of the Australian International competition in March.
But female athletes were disappointed that Hubbard was allowed to take part, with one lifter telling New Zealand TV news station 1NewsNow that the inclusion of a male athlete in a women’s competition was unfair.
She said: “We all deserve to be on an even playing field. It’s difficult when you believe that you’re not. If it’s not even, why are we doing the sport?”