补充美国Women's Running杂志访问Amelia Gapin的文章。
http://goo.gl/UpgiP4
IOC Says Transgender Athletes Can Take Part In Olympics
The transgender community has a reason to celebrate with a recent
announcement in the sports world. The International Olympic Committee (IOC)
announced new guidelines which will allow athletes to compete in the Olympics
and other international events without undergoing sex reassignment surgery.
“I think it’s great. I think it’s a long time coming. Surgery isn’t what
every transgender person has or can afford. So now allowing transgender
people to compete without surgery is bringing it more up-to-date. This
creates an open and more fair environment,” expresses Amelia Gapin, a
transgender woman, marathon runner and finalist for the 2015 Women’s Running
Cover Runner Contest.
The revised policy now allows athletes who transition from female to male to
compete without any restrictions.
Those transitioning from male to female must undergo hormone therapy. They
also must have a certain testosterone level 12 months prior to competition
and maintain the qualifying hormone level throughout competition and pass any
potential hormone-level tests too.
“Your genitals don’t affect how you perform. It’s your hormone levels that
do,” explains Gapin.
The USATF rules for transgender runners are still based off of the old
Olympic guidelines, but there is still hope that this new change will open
doors for other events. “Right now if a transgender is transitioning to be a
woman but has not had surgery, she’ll have to qualify under the male
qualifying time and age,” Gapin explains.
A normal testosterone level for a man is about 300 nanograms per deciliter
(ng/dL). For a woman, it’s 25 to 70 ng/dL.
“What happens is when you go on hormones, as a transgender woman, you go on
a testosterone blocker. As a transgender man, you go on testosterone. The
testosterone blockers will make your testosterone levels go down,” explains
Gapin. Everyone’s body reacts differently to the treatment; testosterone
levels can drop really low, stay in the normal range, or climb to the upper
end of the range.
“For me, my testosterone went down to just about zero. That means I had less
testosterone than any other transgender woman, which put me at a disadvantage.
”
Gapin went from running a 3:08 marathon to a 3:44. “It took some time to
mentally cope with that time. I knew ahead of time that that would be my
reality. But it took time to accept it. I was putting in the same effort, but
I was running slower. I had to work harder to still run slower. I’ve trained
harder for races since I’ve transitioned…and still ran slower. So yeah, it
was difficult. After a couple years, it just becomes your reality. It’s your
normal.”
The testosterone blockers can have other side effects as well. The most
common drug in the United States is called Spironolactone. It’s actually a
potassium-sparing diuretic, so “it makes you have to pee all the time, which
can cause dehydration. It also causes your body to retain potassium,” says
Gapin. “So you have to watch your diet—I had to avoid bananas and kale,
basically all the really healthy foods that have a lot of potassium in them.”
Surgery or no surgery, there are many issues transgender athletes’ bodies
deal with as they transition.
“I think the issue is people think or thought transgender athletes have an
advantage without really understanding the full effects of transition. It’s
not cut and dry like, ‘Oh you used to have testosterone in your body, and you
’re going to be a stronger athlete—forever.'”
For a transgender woman to have “bottom surgery” (as Gapin calls it), it
cost about $20,000 to $25,000 and recovery varies per individual. “It can
take six weeks before you can maybe walk. Or it could be 12 to 16 weeks
before you’re running. But all that time you’re not running, your body gets
weaker. So it’s not like you have surgery and then 10 weeks later you’re
back to where you were. You’re starting from zero.”
Gapin had to train harder, run longer and push herself more than ever before.
“I discovered that my body needed more recovery time. Besides time, I
noticed I had weaker hip muscles, which could lead to injury. So I had to do
more strength training, foam rolling…a lot of things I could get away with
before I couldn’t now. This just became my normal and I finally accepted it.
”
“It’s my hope that USATF and other governing bodies will update their
policies as well,” expresses Gapin. “This is a big step forward and it
brings the Olympic rules up to date to where they should be and aligns what
the NCAA has already done. It creates an environment where transgender people
can actually take part.”
有鉴于我是Amelia Gapin的个人好友，
也深感这件事的重要性(毕竟我也是MtF马拉松跑者)，就把全文翻成中文让大家参考~
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国际奥委会表示跨性别者可参加奥运
最近体坛有一件值得跨性别者庆祝的大新闻：国际奥林匹克委员会(IOC)宣布一项新方针
，允许运动员不须进行变性手术，即可参加奥运会与其他国际运动竞赛。
Amelia Gapin表示：“奥委会的这项决定是一件很好的事情，很高兴我们终于走到这一步
。不是所有的跨性别者都会动手术—或者‘有钱’动手术。现在允许跨性别者免术参赛，
才符合时代潮流，也让奥运的环境更开放与公平。”Amelia是跨女马拉松跑者，也进入了
2015年Women's Running杂志封面人物选拔的决选名单。
在新政策中，女跨男运动选手可以自由参赛，没有限制。
男跨女运动选手则需要进行贺尔蒙疗法，并且在比赛前12个月以及比赛期间，睪固酮含量
都要低于某个数值，并可能需要通过其他贺尔蒙检验。
Amelia解释说：“你的性器官不是影响运动表现的主因，贺尔蒙才是。”
美国田径协会(USATF)对于跨性别跑者的规定，依然沿用旧的奥运规范，但这个最新的政
策改变可望让其他运动比赛跟进。Amelia表示：“目前假如一个跨女没有动过手术，她依
然需要符合男性的门槛成绩。”
正常男性的睪固酮约为300 ng/dL，女性约为25-70 ng/dL。
Amelia说：“跨性别者进行贺尔蒙疗法，以MtF而言吃的是抗雄药物，FtM吃的是雄激素。
抗雄药物让你的睪固酮降低，”但每个人的身体对药物的反应不尽相同，有些人的雄激素
可以降到很低，有些维持正常女性的标准，有些会接近范围的最高限度。
“对我来说，我(吃药之后)睪固酮就降到几乎是零了，也就是说我的雄激素比其他跨女都
要低，让我在运动表现上居于劣势。”
Amelia的马拉松完赛成绩从3:08降到3:44，“对于成绩退步，我花了不少时间心理建设。
尽管我早就知道现实就是如此，但依然需要一点时间来接受它。我用同样的力气跑步，但
速度变慢了。就算我更用力跑，还是比以前慢。自从开始服药之后，我更加努力训练准备
路跑比赛，但跑得依然比以前慢。这是一件很困难的事情。几年之后，妳才会逐渐觉得这
是正常的。”
抗雄药物也有其他副作用。以美国最常用的spironolactone (苏拉通、安达通)来说，它
也是保钾利尿剂，所以“会让妳一天到晚跑厕所，可能会造成脱水，而且也让妳的身体保
留钾，”Amelia说，“妳要特别注意饮食—我不能吃香蕉和甘蓝菜，还有许许多多高钾的
健康食物。”
不论有没有动手术，跨性别运动员在性别转换的过程中，都有许多问题需要面对。
“我觉得症结在许多人直觉认为，跨性别运动员占有优势，却没有真正了解性别转换造成
的影响。事情绝对不是‘妳身体以前有很多雄激素，所以妳永远都比原生女来得强’这么
单纯。”
跨女如果要动Amelia说的“该边”手术，大概要花两万到两万五千美金，而且每个人术后
恢复的时间不同。“妳动完手术后，可能要六个礼拜才能走路，12到16个礼拜才能跑步。
但当妳没跑步的时候，身体是持续在变弱。所以并不是动完手术后十个礼拜，妳就恢复成
正常跑者了，这基本上等于砍掉重练。”
Amelia必须比以前更努力训练、跑得更远、而且让自己比以前更加燃烧小宇宙。
“我发现我的身体需要更多时间来恢复。不仅是时间，我的臀部肌肉也弱化了，让受伤的
风险增加。所以我要做更多的重量训练、使用泡棉滚筒…等等许多我以前可以省略掉但现
在不行的训练。我现在终于能接受这就是我正常的身体。”
“我希望美国田径协会和其他运动组织也可以更新政策，”Amelia表示。“这是跨性别的
一大步，奥运的标准终于正确、符合时代潮流，也和国家大学体育协会(NCAA)早已采用的
标准相同了。这会塑造一个让跨性别者能够真正参与的体坛。”
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身为一个MtF跑者，我对Amelia的话感同身受，
我前年夏天开始吃药，去年四月底开始跑步，
有种感觉不管怎么跑、怎么训练，似乎早已碰到瓶颈了，
去年一整年跑了800公里，但成绩是丝毫没有进步，唯一进步的只有耐力，
从一开始只能连跑5公里，现在已经可以跑半马了。
但这大概也是我一直不断练跑才有办法勉强维持，去年12月到今年1月中因为养伤，
跑量跟次数都大大降低，但药当然还得继续吃，
这段期间雌激素不断把身体的肌肉/脂肪分布改变，
造成现在每次跑起来感觉明显变弱变慢了。
许多朋友安慰我说这是因为我伤还没好、台湾天气湿热空气差...等等的原因，
但我很清楚他们说的应该都不是主因。
我已经是个货真价实的女跑者，只是碍于种种原因，路跑只能跑男生组而已 ><
回台湾前，在波士顿当地跑团认识的好友Kelly也跟我说，
她可以体会这是多么困难的事情，毕竟这是我贺尔蒙之间的拔河，
运动会造成雄激素增加，但我不断吃药把它抗掉...
一方面羡慕Amelia吃苏拉通就能把雄激素降到接近零，
(虽然她也私下跟我说过她希望胸部长得更大XD)，
一方面也觉得若我雄激素太低了，是不是路跑会越跑越慢，离波士顿马拉松又更远了，
真是身为MtF跑者的甜蜜负担啊~(笑)
还是衷心希望台湾路跑界能从善如流，参考奥运规定，对跨性别跑者更加友善。
很好奇台湾路跑这么流行，板上有没有也在跑步的MtF呢，我们组个团体一起努力吧！
奥运都能免术参赛了，我们的免术换证咧？(敲碗)