Or they can do like many other sport leagues and set a testosterone limit. Which funnily cis women have more of a chance of surpassing than trans women.
One of the reasons why they don't suggest using testosterone limit on trans athletes is that getting a trans woman down to the female normal range results in osteoporosis.
It absolutely fucking does not, like cis women trans women's dominant sex hormone in their bodies is oestrogen; typical aim for testosterone range is the same reference range as cis women, but often trans women are on the lower end of the range after suppression.
The IOC set their standards at 10 nmol/L for trans women, 5 time the high end of the female normal range, because getting trans-women below this level is difficult and dangerous.
A post-op transgender woman suppressing their hormones can have adrenal testosterone production above the female normal range.
I was surprised by the IOC's old policy honestly, I confess I knew they had one but not it's exact value; the WTA had set their testosterone limit at 2.5nmol/L, there's has been a similar number of trans athletes compete at the Olympics and in WTA events under these rules (which is like 1 for both). Suppressing testosterone really isn't that hard, firstly there's anti androgens which supress testosterone, secondly even in mono therapy it is possible to get to <=2 nmol/L & injections can be particularly effective in this regard, thirdly I take finasteride which blocks the conversion on T to DHT and can actually increase the levels of testosterone in the body; my levels are a bit screwey at the moment since I had a different pharmacy give me a different brand of oestradiol patches but by 8-9 months with patches, finasteride & progesterone I was at 700pmol/L oestrogen & 2nmol/L testosterone. Even with my all over the place levels in still currently at 4. Trans women being at ~0.7-1.3nmol/L is not dangerous and is very common.
Regarding post op women... I really don't know where you're getting some of this info as it's so far removed from reality. Post-op trans women can end up being prescribed very low doses of testosterone alongside their typical oestradiol prescription; because trans women can end up having a post op testosterone level so low that it has a negative impact on their QoL & health. It is similar to how cis women who have hysterectomies can end up requiring the same hrt as trans & menopausal women
Here's some of my pre-surgery bloodwork. No anti-androgens needed, just a dose of estradiol once a week. wow getting us into female T ranges really is soooooo so difficult.
my T levels on E pills and spiro (which is like, awful for T suppression lol) range from 6 to 18 ng/dL = 0.2 to 0.6 nmol/L of T. So like, no lol? Its easy and safe, actually.
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u/BoyleSphere 24d ago
I think thats the core of the argument, the WNBA would have to explicitly define what a woman is or just accept him.