What will the sporting world look like in 50 years? As society changes, social norms and standards evolve. This includes sports rules and policies. The sporting landscape of 50 years ago was vastly different to that of today.
Caster Semenya is not a household name in Australia. She is an Olympic, Commonwealth and World champion. Semenya is also an intersex athlete.
Briefly, this means she was born with ambiguous genitalia and assigned a gender at birth.
When the South African burst onto the athletics scene as an eighteen-year-old, she destroyed the 800-metre field at the 2009 World Championships and won by an incredible 2.5 seconds.
Other athletes complained about her deep voice and muscular composition.
In 2018, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) introduced guidelines about the testosterone levels present in a female athlete. Specifically, between 400m and 1500m.
They used scientific evidence which allegedly proves these are the distances that women with high testosterone levels are most advantaged in.
The updated IAAF policy has a central idea that athletes must have less than five nanomoles of testosterone per litre for a minimum of six months.
The normal range for a woman is 0.12-1.79 nanomoles of testosterone.
Semenya will be forced to take hormone tablets to lower testosterone levels which could result in slowing her by up to seven seconds over 800m.
Semenya will fight the rule so it could be revised or revoked altogether. The IAAF had a similar rule challenged and overthrown in 2015 by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Closer to home, the AFL came under scrutiny last year in the case of Hannah Mouncey.
Hannah was born a male (different to Semenya’s case) but identifies as a woman.
She was not allowed to compete in the AFLW due to fears of her physicality and size being an unfair advantage. Yet, she played in the lower level VFL competition.
The AFL has been criticised widely regarding their policy on transgender athletes. Despite taking feedback from transgender athletes and advocates in August, the AFL published an almost unchanged policy document two weeks later.
Mouncey decided not to nominate for the 2018 draft saying the league “had treated her like s***”.
Across in California recently, Patricio Manuel made history by becoming the first transgender boxer to fight professionally in the USA.
He won his bout as a superfeather weight. There were no limitations on his bout as he was transitioning from female to male.
Caster Semenya. (Photo: Lukas Schulze/Getty Images)
The public outrage seems to come when males are transitioning to females and wish to participate in female sporting competitions.
As time goes on the number of transgender and intersex athletes competing in their assigned or chosen sex is only going to increase.
As of this moment, there is no consistent policy across sports in Australia in relation to transgender and intersex athletes and how and if they can compete.
Mouncey recently competed for the Australian women’s handball team three years after she represented the male equivalent.
It becomes even murkier when comparing sporting policies worldwide. The question is, which path do the governing bodies of each sport both domestically and internationally travel?
Option A: Five nanomoles or bust
The normal Testosterone range for men is 10-35 nmol/L (nanomole per litre), with an average in the low twenties, and for women an average of about 1.2-1.5 nmol/L.
The AFL has followed the lead of the IAAF and the International Olympic Committee in using five nanomoles of testosterone or less as a guide to fair levels of testosterone in the blood of intersex and transgender athletes.
This used to be ten nanomoles as recently as 2010, but has been reviewed as more studies have been carried out and more scientific data has been released.
Many elite intersex and transgender athletes need to take hormone pills to get to these levels and to maintain them. The idea is to slow them down and take away any advantage high levels of testosterone will give them.
Hannah Mouncey. (Photo: Daniel Pockett/Getty Images)
This policy has both positives and negatives. Athletes have to provide extensive evidence of hormone levels both in and out of competition. This can lead to the athletes feeling like they are being unfairly targeted.
Hannah Mouncey chose not to put herself through the process of the 2018 draft saying; “the toll this has taken on the people I care about is enormous, as has the toll it’s taken on me.
“I’m not ok with allowing that to continue”.
The amount of medical testing that transgender and intersex athletes need to work through is massive compared to the sporadic drug testing other athletes face which is a distinct disadvantage.
Option B: Introducing a third and separate category for intersex and transgender athletes based on testosterone levels
This is a controversial idea put forward by Dr Stephane Bermon, who heads the IAAF’s Health and Science Department.
He believes it could happen in the next five or ten years in the athletics world. According to Bermon, in elite female athletics, the number of intersex athletes is 140 times more than what you find in the normal female population.
“We have seen in a decade and more of research that 7.1 in every 1000 elite female athletes in our sport have elevated testosterone levels, the majority are in the restricted events covered by these regulations”, Dr Bermon said.
This option, apart from being highly controversial, might not be feasible or workable. Many sports around the world would not have the high numbers of intersex or transgender athletes to introduce a third category. Team sports would find it particularly hard.
This option also exposes intersex and transgender athletes to further stigmatisation and marginalisation. If this was introduced as policy, the mental health of athletes would be of great concern.
Option C: No restrictions
This would permit an athlete the opportunity to compete in whichever gender category they identify as without restrictions.
This would allow athletes like Hannah Mouncey to enter the AFLW draft without any hormone level expectations being placed on them.
It would allow Caster Semenya to compete at her athletic best without the constant speculation around her gender.
A no restriction policy would also help eliminate the vilification and abuse transgender and intersex athletes often receive.
It should be noted if this policy was introduced, steps for transgender athletes to prove they are legitimately transitioning would need to be implemented and verified.
Evidence from doctors and other health professionals would be vital for this policy not to fall into a farcical situation.
Option D: No Categories
Imagine taking gender and sexual characteristics out of the sporting world and only having one category. Everyone competes against everyone else in everything. The results would be intriguing.
Sports administrators around Australia and the world will have some tough decisions to make in the future regarding the transgender and intersex issue.
Each sport will have policies that will change and evolve regarding it. Consultation and inclusivity should be prioritised highly in any such policy put forward.
What the sporting landscape will look like in 2050 is anybody’s guess.
Kirsti30
Guest
Quote:”The AFL has followed the lead of the IAAF and the International Olympic Committee in using five nanomoles of testosterone or less as a guide to fair levels of testosterone in the blood of intersex and transgender athletes.” This is incorrect, the AFl have not followed the IOC the IOC still has a limit of 10nmols/L. The IAAf has a 5nmols policy in certain events for female athletes that have a DSD condition. Both Caster and South Africa Athletics have challenged the IAAF policy, I am due to give evidence as a key athletes witness in the pending CAS hearing.
Kirsti30
Guest
”The normal range for a woman is 0.12-1.79 nanomoles of testosterone.” Incorrect Endocrine profiles in 693 elite athletes in the post-competition setting’, found that 16.5% of the ‘male’ athletes had low testosterone levels, and 13.7% of the ‘females’ had high testosterone levels, ‘with complete overlap between the sexes’. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/24593684/
Kirsti30
Guest
In regards to the @iaaf 5nmol/L policy for females with a DSD condition, @Scienceofsport ,says the effect will be significant on athletes such as Semenya. “If this policy passes, then I would predict that Semenya will be five to seven seconds slower over 800 metres,” he wrote. https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2018/apr/25/iaaf-testosterone-rules-caster-semenya He told the Guardian: “History suggests Semenya will lose about four seconds to five seconds. Because in 2013 and 2014, when the IAAF were diligent about ensuring her compliance with the upper limit at that time (10nM), she was running 2:00. I don’t think she even qualified for the Commonwealth Games. Now, at 5nM, that effect will be even larger, I suspect. She will go from a 1:54 to 2:01-2:03, is my estimate.” I agree that @caster800m times will be slower if she is forced to comply with the 5nmols @iaaforg policy as a prerequisite to compete. As @scienceofsport stated her performance dropped significantly when she had to maintain under 10nmols. This performance drop in @caster800m is the same as an XY transitioning female experiences when they undergo HRT @caster800m including androgen blockers & estrogen treatment. Most transitioning females achieve under 1 nmols well within the first 12 months of commencing HRT. The XY surgically transitioned female generates no hormones within an acute few years, the body goes into complete menopausal state; due to complete androgen deprivation creating 24 major contraindications the body no longer is able to support itself as protein cell synthesis ceases, which is a key need and function of the human physiology which all high performance athlete require need to maintain health body and in mind. The transitioned female is actually competing at a disadvantage and eventually will no longer be able to participate in high performance sport due to the bodies ability unable to support itself, putting the athlete at incredible risk. @wada allows men diagnosed with low testosterone to apply for an exemption to take synthetic testosterone, an otherwise banned substance, because they have a medical need. In the same document, @wada stipulates(in bold font)that this exception “should not be approved for females”.Even if a woman’s testosterone falls below a healthy limit,she is not granted the same opportunity as a man to raise it to levels commensurate with her same-sex competitors. Trans male athletes(who transition from female to male), however, can compete hormonally unfettered. In fact, @wada_ama maintains that the use of synthetic testosterone“is essential for completion of the anatomical and psychological transition process in female-to-male athletes”. In a separate document, WADA insists that “there is no known indication for testosterone supplementation in transgender female athletes”. This means that testosterone is not just about performance enhancement, but also about one’s health and wellbeing. But only when it comes to men under @WADA Policy. Transitioning females are widely viewed as the biggest threat to women's competition, I disagree with this view. XY transitioning & transitioned females are the only athletes competing unhealthy in a complete androgen deprivation state and well beyond a (post menopause state). Incredibly unhealthy and spore eventually becomes impossible as the body deteriorates as it cannot respond to day-to-day to regulate androgens. Which then causes complete androgen deprivation of the human body, heavily contraindicates it as testosterone plays over 200 functions in the body every single day separate of the sex of the physiology. We can be assured, one this is extremely unhealthy – Moreover, and most important, we can be assured that there are no women either XX and or XY competing internationally like this. This is not for anyone a desired state and for the participation high performance sport eventually impossible to participate. It is very concerning @wada_ama would not consider this as the global body of sport and making such policy for TUE committees to use as a guide would not be considered. But again illustrates one a possible bias, but certainly a greater concern that there was no research and peer review when developing this guideline document in the first place. As a condition and prerequisite of sport inclusion and participation for a young athlete, further concerning knowing the contraindications and the longterm impact on a young athletes physiology and broader health issues, is concerning of a global body approving such a process as global recommendation within sport and the ethical and legal implications. We need sports to review & revise internal policies to embrace human rights, secondly sports should be working towards a system of individuality, diversity, inclusion & accessibility & embracing the human ability no matter of one sex or body type. We need to advocate for the establishment of standards & guidelines related to XY female athletes based in objective scientific research we also need to advocate for individualised Therapeutic Use Exemptions (TUE) conducted by medical personnel with subject-matter expertise;
Kirsti Miller
Guest
Caster has adrenal hyperplasia a condition where the adrenal gland is larger than usual. She is XX chromosome and she does produce a higher level of testosterone. Caster does not have ambiguous genitalia this article needs amending.
El mickador
Guest
Interesting concept. Impossible to say as the world and it’s inclusivity seemingly evolve each day. Nicely researched piece mate!