putting the hours in ... the effect of medical transition of physical performance
A couple of months ago I wrote a post that mentioned how much time I spent Dancing. Since then I've added a Contemporary class to the regular diary - so this means that I'm dancing at least 3 hours more weeks than not just from my regular classes (Lady Bay and Hype) never mind Powerhouse Ballet or The Ballet Retreat.
The recent debate over trans people, specifically trans women, in sport has brought to the fore various accusations that trans women have an unfair advantage in sports and other physical activities ... often based around muscle mass,haemoglobin levels / oxygen carrying capacity and so on
If you didn't put the LH and FSH figures on the list ( they are suppressed due to GnRH analogue acting to suppress testosterone) my blood results from the past 6 months are indistinguishable from those of a cisgender woman... Yet according to the concern trolls trans women have higher Hb levels than cis women... which accounts for a big part of the VO2 max differences...
My Mean Cell Haemoglobin Concentration has stayed pretty consistent across the period of my medical transition thus far, however my Hb and Haemocrit have dropped as my hormonal milieu has changed...
I don't have objective data on muscle mass changes..
Here's the subjective data
Part of my role in work sometimes involves moving boxes and totes of product , the heaviest of these are perhaps around 20-25 kg i do find these rather hard to life than I did and certain struggle with repeating these tasks hundreds of times - as we might experience around product launch time for the more popular fruit-based and confectionery-based telephonic devices ...
Before I had effective testosterone suppression i'd noticed that not only did i have 'knee dimples' developing from taking ballet class (especially once i'd started taking a second and sometimes third class each week) I was also getting the kind of leg muscles you see on male dancers... with effective testosterone suppression - still lean and powerful but, in the words of a well respected vocational teacher (and former soloist with ENB), after she had been a guest teacher for a class i attended)
As those who read the blog will know I did get properly fitted for my pointes, by a fitter who has experience with trans women.
A big confounder in this over the past year is my weight loss as discussed in Small or not so Small Victories...
Even at just over 90 kg i'm quite a bit heavier than ideal (although teetering on the edge of no longer being counted as Obese by BMI) but i'm quite a lot lighter than I was a year ago ...
So i'm still improving en pointe, my double pirouettes came then went and hopefully are on their way back again (strength and centre of gravity at play there as well as the pelvic changes that ARE seen in trans women contrary to the assertions of the exclusionists) ...
The recent debate over trans people, specifically trans women, in sport has brought to the fore various accusations that trans women have an unfair advantage in sports and other physical activities ... often based around muscle mass,haemoglobin levels / oxygen carrying capacity and so on
If you didn't put the LH and FSH figures on the list ( they are suppressed due to GnRH analogue acting to suppress testosterone) my blood results from the past 6 months are indistinguishable from those of a cisgender woman... Yet according to the concern trolls trans women have higher Hb levels than cis women... which accounts for a big part of the VO2 max differences...
My Mean Cell Haemoglobin Concentration has stayed pretty consistent across the period of my medical transition thus far, however my Hb and Haemocrit have dropped as my hormonal milieu has changed...
I don't have objective data on muscle mass changes..
Here's the subjective data
Part of my role in work sometimes involves moving boxes and totes of product , the heaviest of these are perhaps around 20-25 kg i do find these rather hard to life than I did and certain struggle with repeating these tasks hundreds of times - as we might experience around product launch time for the more popular fruit-based and confectionery-based telephonic devices ...
Before I had effective testosterone suppression i'd noticed that not only did i have 'knee dimples' developing from taking ballet class (especially once i'd started taking a second and sometimes third class each week) I was also getting the kind of leg muscles you see on male dancers... with effective testosterone suppression - still lean and powerful but, in the words of a well respected vocational teacher (and former soloist with ENB), after she had been a guest teacher for a class i attended)
As those who read the blog will know I did get properly fitted for my pointes, by a fitter who has experience with trans women.
A big confounder in this over the past year is my weight loss as discussed in Small or not so Small Victories...
Even at just over 90 kg i'm quite a bit heavier than ideal (although teetering on the edge of no longer being counted as Obese by BMI) but i'm quite a lot lighter than I was a year ago ...
So i'm still improving en pointe, my double pirouettes came then went and hopefully are on their way back again (strength and centre of gravity at play there as well as the pelvic changes that ARE seen in trans women contrary to the assertions of the exclusionists) ...
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