: Why are some female athletes being disqualified from the olympics for their natural testosterone levels ?
In: Biology
There have been a few problems with women’s running the last few years. Both people accused of being men in disguise, transgender women trying to compete with the other women and also suspicion of women taking testosterone to boost their performance. In an effort to prevent these issues they changed the rules and now the definition of a women is based on their levels of testosterone. This is the first Olympics with the new rules. And it have caused some issues where women with naturally high testosterone levels which would have been able to qualify as women under the old rules now have to compete with the men.
In response to perceived issues with trans women and testosterone levels, the IOC set a testosterone level at which it’s illegal to compete as a woman. This only applies to trans women though.
They also set out regulations for any amount of natural testosterone; however, this only applies in track to the 400, 800, or mile races. This seems oddly specific, but was thought to be in response to Caster Semenya winning medals in those events at various championships.
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In rare cases there are XXY individuals that appear and present themselves as female but have internal testes that produce a lot of testosterone – more than an XX (aka typical) woman would. So the governing bodies have said there are certain events they can’t do since they’re at a distinct advantage from XX women.
Testosterone levels is the most fair measurement I’ve yet heard of to try to keep everything open and uh, fair. Need a synonym for fair.
She is intersex, agreed. She is neither “cis” nor “trans”, these are made up words to describe gender related mental problems. Your gender ideas are irrelevant as far as physical activity is concerned.
Her biological sex is uncertain due to genetic problems. What is certain is that females she competes with don’t have testosterone amounts she has.
She is not physically a woman, thus, she is barred from women-only competition.
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