Trans Athletes, Trans HealthCare Providers React to USA Swimming Guidance
EASTON, Md- USA Swimming is announcing new guidelines that transgender athletes will have to follow in order to compete and maintain fair competition. Trans advocates say that ruling comes in response to trans-UPENN swimmer Lia Thomas. It requires trans women to undergo hormone therapy — and have low testosterone levels in their blood for 36 months before competing at the elite level.
Deborah Dunn, a local trans-healthcare provider who specializes in gender-affirming therapy at Chase Paxton in Easton tells us, the hormone levels the tests call for are fair but 36 months is a long time to wait. She says the medications that swap hormone levels for trans men and women are fast-acting and stay at those levels as treatment continues.
“Their testosterone levels are at female ranges which do not put them at a competitive disadvantage, I think its fair people should be able to participate in the gender they identify,” Dunn said.
Dunn tells us many of her patients at the Easton Clinic actually took medication that prevents puberty from taking place. Of those patients, many are collegiate athletes who play on varsity teams in Georgetown, and the University of Delaware.
Trans athlete Leah Fitzpatrick tells 47 ABC 36 months is a long time as trans women begin quickly losing muscle mass, and that the reason many athletes who go through transition see a boost is that they are mentally healthier after getting treatment.
“I’m about as strong now as I was in 7th grade, I don’t see how strength could be a barrier, but the reason Trans women do better when they come out but that’s because sports is a lot about how you feel mentally and the lift from all those years of keeping something down the lift for yourself makes your performance gets 100 percent better.”
Fitzpatrick tells us she hopes having a clear policy per sport will create a standard for trans athletes to work with but hopes down the line they can be included not excluded from the competition.
