Female runner who is a man

The comparisons are only with XX chromosome women, who have a very different physiology and normal functioning testosterone receptors. The science around testosterone in intersex conditions is poorly understood, let alone as it applies to individuals. This is a level chosen for convenience, not a level that will negate any perceived advantage, but go no further. Yet Semenya is asked to cobble her natural potential as a female competitor.

She must take risky biological interventions to reduce her performance. Read more: It's not clear where human rights fit in the legal ruling on athlete Caster Semenya. Other women with disorders resulting in higher than expected levels of testosterone, such as congenital adrenal hyperplasia, are not required to reduce their biological advantage.

Competitors with genetic mutations causing increases in red blood cell mass, and who experience enhanced oxygen-carrying capacity as a result, are not required to reduce their biological levels. He and won several Olympic medals with this natural form of doping. Firstly, it was the IAAF which moved from sex to gender definition of female in s. Semenya has entered competition, trained and competed fairly under the rules.

To change them now will be undermine her capacity to compete, work and live, after a lifetime of investment. If the rules are to be changed, they should not affect athletes who agreed to the current rules, but future athletes. Even if these rules could be considered justified, they should apply to future athletes as soon as possible after puberty.

Secondly, justice is about giving priority to the worst off in our society — but this ruling adds disadvantage to the worst off. Those with intersex conditions are already stigmatised, discriminated against, in many cases cannot bear children even if they want to. They are the socially disadvantaged. This ruling adds further discrimination and disadvantage. Thirdly, it sets back integration of intersex people, by stigmatising and marginalising them.

We have told them: be yourself, society will accept you. At the heart of this decision is the fear of displacement of cisgender women on the podia by increasing debate over transgender athletes.

Read more: Explainer: what does it mean to be 'cisgender'? This is a separate issue. Transgender athletes have normal testosterone receptors and would have grown up in the presence of male levels of testosterone acting on normal receptors. Intersex athletes have not grown up in this way and are typically raised as female. The perceived problem of transgender domination of female sports can be dealt with by separate rules that do not disadvantage existing intersex athletes, though they will raise contentious issues of their own.

All methods of reducing testosterone involve some risk. For example, the administration of high-dose birth control medication involves risk of clots, including fatal lung clots. It's not the first time female runners have faced this problem.

In , Caster Semenya was banned from competing after World Athletics ruled that "to ensure fair competition, women with high natural testosterone levels must take medication to reduce them to compete in middle-distance races". But asking someone to take medication to alter something in a body they are happy with is controversial.

And if I try something else, I might get caught somewhere else, and something might go wrong with my body. Testosterone is a driver of red blood cell count, and the more red blood cells a person has, the more oxygen they can carry to their muscles, allowing them to run faster for longer amounts of time. Men typically have higher testosterone levels than women, which is one of the reasons why, on average, they outperform women in athletic competition.

And if people take testosterone as a performance-enhancing drug, they will generally perform better, says Dr Richard Holt, professor in diabetes and endocrinology at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Southampton.

Research shows, however, that if you take a group of elite male athletes, all with varying testosterone levels, the ones with higher levels of the hormone don't necessarily perform better than those males with lower levels.

Dr Holt says the same is true of elite female athletes, which is why testosterone can't be the whole story when it comes to athletic performance. The problem, though, is where to draw the line between a testosterone advantage and other natural, genetic advantages. Joanna Harper, the author of Sporting Gender, argues: "If you're going to pick one advantage to separate the two categories [female and male], you want to pick an advantage that one group has that the other doesn't.

And you pick a biomarker that is widely divergent in the two groups. There had to be a line of demarcation at some point, and unfortunately Mboma and Masilingi were on the wrong side. Harper, a transgender athlete herself, says: "It's not an elegant solution by any stretch of the imagination, but it places fairly minimal restrictions on people It's not elegant, but it's not, to my mind, horribly unreasonable either. Many physical characteristics give people an advantage in sports, advocates note, but no one demands that they change those characteristics.

Swimmer Michael Phelps has exceptionally long arms, which gives him an advantage in his sport, Pagonis said. The track and field world is trying to figure out what it means to be female. Our mission has never been more vital than it is in this moment: to empower through understanding. Financial contributions from our readers are a critical part of supporting our resource-intensive work and help us keep our journalism free for all. Please consider making a contribution to Vox today to help us keep our work free for all.

Cookie banner We use cookies and other tracking technologies to improve your browsing experience on our site, show personalized content and targeted ads, analyze site traffic, and understand where our audiences come from. By choosing I Accept , you consent to our use of cookies and other tracking technologies. Reddit Pocket Flipboard Email. I am a woman and I am fast. Semenya has been scrutinized since Caster Semenya, as she is usually known in the press, first gained worldwide attention in when she competed in the meters at the world championships in Berlin.

But the idea of testosterone testing has sparked a lot of criticism. Next Up In Identities. Delivered Fridays. Thanks for signing up! Check your inbox for a welcome email. Email required.