IOC just disqualified women for having too much testosterone. Why do some women have more testosterone? If it’s naturally occurring why isn’t it like height for example in basketball? Just a natural advantage. My first post here, thanks in advance!!
In: Biology
I’m a woman who was born with all of the female parts along with some deformed male bits. Those deformed male bits were removed shortly after birth. Basically, I was born intersex. I didn’t really have any manifestations until puberty where things just weren’t happening at the milestones that most females reach. I had an incredibly irregular period until my mid 20s when I started medication specifically to lower my androgen levels (they were off the charts and on the lower end for a male in mid to late 30s). Even though I had been on birth control for many many years, my periods were super irregular at best; for example, one year I maybe had 3 periods lasting all of 1-2 days. Other things that didn’t quite match up is that while I’m not a very hairy person to begin with, I had more than the fine hair that most women have on their knuckles, toes, chest, etc. Some women are hairier than others, but none of the women in my family are exceptionally hairy with a couple of my aunts (I have 7 first aunts on my mother’s side who are currently alive) having almost no calf hair like it’s not even the very fine hair. So it wasn’t expected for me to have this much hair on parts of my body that are clearly visible. Eventually, I was able to speak with my mom & have a real conversation about this considering she’s finally sober and she’s not simply saying hurtful things because she’s high. While she’s said my entire life I’m “not really a girl” and how they “chopped off the fuck & should’ve chopped up the rest of me” and other variations of that, I never believed her because of her addition that made her manipulative, mean, and abusive (so much so I was in and out of foster care & kinship homes most of my first 17 years). With that being said, I probably have such high levels of androgens that are naturally occurring because I’m intersex. But as for it having any advantage, I promise you that it gives me absolutely no athletic advantage at all except that I put on muscle a little bit faster than other comparable women (age, height, weight, same workouts, etc.) and wind up looking bulky. I can’t say it has ever improved my physical abilities, especially since I don’t think I’ve ever been able to run a 10 minute mile no matter my size- be it 125 lbs or 190 lbs.
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