Former MMA fighter Fallon Fox has been a target of criticism ever since it was revealed that she was a transgender MMA athlete. Now years after her retirement, she came back with data to debunk the claim that transgender female athletes have advantages over cisgender female athletes.
This topic resurfaced again after another transgender female fighter Alana McLaughlin won her debut against cisgender female fighter, Celine Provost. Just like Fox, McLaughlin received harsh criticism for her victory even though she passed all the medical examinations, including a hormone test. McLaughlin hasn’t fought again since but is rumored to be targeting a bare knuckle bout.
Fox has now taken to Twitter to shine a spotlight on some medical information to support her claim that there’s no physical advantage for transgender female athletes over cisgender female athletes.
Don’t come at me with “trans women have an advantage over cis women with endurance” ever again. https://t.co/1smm7EEds8
— Fallon Fox (@FallonFox) January 10, 2022
“New research finds trans women that undergo HRT their hemoglobin levels reduce to the normal F range within just 3–4 months & their Vo2 Max in 4-6 months & their muscle reduces mass 9.4 % in just the first 12 months of T deprivation,” the post said along with a graph containing the data.
While the editorial staff of Calfkicker.com believes that Fox believes her claim – we were skeptical about the legitimacy of a science paper that would claim something so absurd. This prompted us to locate the paper.
The research that the graph was taken from is called “How does hormone transition in transgender women change body composition, muscle strength and haemoglobin? Systematic review with a focus on the implications for sport participation ‘ and it can be found on British Journal of Sports Medicine website.
While the data shared by Fox isn’t manipulated – what is manipulated is the conclusion of the research, and it goes as follows:
Conclusion In transwomen, hormone therapy rapidly reduces Hgb to levels seen in cisgender women. In contrast, hormone therapy decreases strength, LBM and muscle area, yet values remain above that observed in cisgender women, even after 36 months. These findings suggest that strength may be well preserved in transwomen during the first 3 years of hormone therapy.