Study provides teens’ perspectives
The current study is especially timely given the recent passage by the U.S. House of Representatives of the anti-trans sports bill preventing transgender women and girls from playing on sports teams “consistent with their gender identity,” said Margaret Thew, DNP, medical director of adolescent medicine at Children’s Wisconsin in Milwaukee, in an interview. Ms. Thew was not involved in the current study.
“The House bill seeks to amend federal law to require that sex shall be recognized based solely on a person’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth, for the purpose of determining compliance with Title IX in athletics,” Ms. Thew said.
“Despite political responses to sports participation for transgender adolescents, we have not heard the perspective of the teens themselves,” she emphasized. “It is imperative for parents, coaches, and clinicians to hear the adolescents’ concerns so they can advocate for the students and provide the needed support.” In addition, Ms. Thew noted, “these concerns may also provide overdue changes to the required uniforms described for specific sports.”
Ms. Thew said she was surprised by the finding of transgender teens’ comfort with coed teams and individual activities, both of which may be opportunities to promote physical activity for transgender adolescents.
However, she added that she was not surprised by some of the results. “Many transgender adolescents experience the discomfort and further body dysmorphia of being put into gender-conforming attire such as swimwear, spandex shorts for female volleyball players, or field hockey skirts, for example.”
Although many schools are establishing safe, comfortable places for all adolescents to change clothing prior to physical education and sports participation, “resources are limited, and students and parents need to advocate within the school system,” Ms. Thew noted.
“We as a society, including athletic clothing makers, need to hear the testimony of transgender adolescents on the discomfort from body modifications to better support and innovate attire to meet their needs,” she added.
“The take-home message for clinicians is twofold,” said Ms. Thew. “Clinicians need to advocate for transgender patients to have the same opportunities as all teens when it comes to sports participation and physical activity. Also, clinicians need to ask all adolescents about their comfort in participating in physical activity both on club/school teams and independently,” she said. “If barriers are identified, clinicians need to work to support the adolescent with alternative activities/attire that will promote healthy physical activities for overall health.”
The current study also suggests that transgender adolescents who may have interest in, but discomfort with, physical activity should be redirected to coed or individual sports available in their communities, Ms. Thew added.
More research is needed on innovative sports attire that would improve comfort for transgender adolescents and thereby encourage physical activity, Ms. Thew told this news organization. More data also are needed on which sports transgender adolescents participate in and why, and how these activities might be promoted, she said.
Finally, more research will be needed to examine the impact of the recent House bills on physical activity for transgender youth, Ms. Thew said.
The study was supported by the Potocsnak Family Division of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine at Ann and Robert H. Lurie’s Children’s Hospital of Chicago. The researchers had no financial conflicts to disclose. Ms. Thew had no financial conflicts to disclose, but she serves on the Editorial Advisory Board of Pediatric News.