The Transgender Athlete

The Transgender Athlete: A Guide for Sports Medicine Providers presents sports medicine practitioners insights into the unique issues and concerns of transgender athletes in order to help them understand rules regarding transgender athlete participation and learn how to better provide competent care to transgender athletes. There are over 1.4 million transgender adults in the United States. Transgender individuals undergo gender-affirming treatments including sex hormone therapy and gender-affirming surgery. An increasing number of transgender people are participating in sports and presenting to sports medicine clinics with injuries, yet there is little research about this athlete population.

It is important that sports medicine providers understand the types of hormone treatments and surgeries and how these changes affect the musculoskeletal health of transgender people. Additionally, transgender people may require specific considerations when interacting with medical providers. Furthermore, sports medicine providers are often consulted to formulate transgender athlete inclusion policy. These policies are continuously changing, as new evidence becomes available, which may be difficult to understand without knowledge of the gender transition process.