Hi!
Double whammy here...Too old to even think about being competitive and transgender, but going for it. (Or going to die trying, possibly.)
Obviously, just like every other aspect of life, people's transitions are completely unique. How your body takes (or rejects in some cases) the hormones, how quickly the hormones affect you and in what ways.
I was only on my testosterone injections for 4 months before I had an insurance issue, and am just now getting able to get back on them.
Even if your body takes the hormones well, the changes are very gradual.
Here's what it's done for me over the 4 months on and 2-3 months off - Facial hair and redistribution of fat and muscle, not change in mass of muscle or fat, any differently than before injections. As far as exercise and "performance" goes, nothing has changed, but I was born with a naturally athletic build and have been doing athletics on and off for my entire life; ballet, volleyball, soccer, fire performing (dancing if you must), hooping and even weight lifting.
Everyone worries about the concern of it being fair, and I could see far more concern with MTF, as SOME, not all, biological males are just naturally more resilient and athletically inclined than biological females, whereas biological females usually have an easier time with gaining and maintaining flexibility, and biological males tend to be the same, but with power and strength.
Transitioning from female to male, even with injections you're probably at a disadvantage still when it comes to competing with people who are born biologically male, depending on where in your transition you're at, (I'm looking at this from an ongoing HRT / pre-OP standpoint, because...Hi. That's me.), because the replacement goes at such a gradual pace that there's really not a lot of performance boosting to it...
Not to mention if your T levels are too high, your body can convert it into excess estrogen and essentially cancel out the effects of the testosterone, and it's also hard on your liver, so doses are based on the individual and what is healthy and maintaining for that individual, never too much, or anything extremely high that could be considered performance enhancing, and if that was the case then you'd need to find a new doctor, because that's begging for health problems. (RIP Liver and Kidneys, it was nice knowing you.)
That being said, if you'd been competing as a female athlete all your life, like a gymnast or a figure skater and you had the flexibility edge on the other guys now that you're transitioning, or if you'd been competing as a male all your life and brought your super awesome quad jumps into the female competition, I could see where the playing field seems questionable....
HOWEVER, hear me out, male or female, inside or out, something that you've worked hard to achieve as either sex or gender, before, during or after transition, is something you've worked hard to do REGARDLESS, and should be treated as such without taking your physical sex and gender identity into account.
But you know...that's me... just dropping a little bit of an insight bomb from my end.
I will now descend back into my safety net of memes and cooking videos, as that was hands down the most serious topic I've commented on in quite some time, and it's really draining.
Ciao! :agree:
Very interesting post with a lot of information to absorb. Thanks for taking the time to share your experience and perspective.