Track’s New Gender Rule Leads to Much Controversy in Excluding Female Athletes with High Testosterone Levels

Is it fair to exclude females with higher testosterone levels from competing and forcing them to lower their hormones, or it is fair to let them compete with the gender they identify with?

Track and field have been facing increasing scrutiny and controversy surrounding its fairness regarding gender, and on Thursday a new rule was put forth that says female athletes with higher testosterone levels, natural or not, would be forced to lower their hormones with medication. If they are unwilling to tamper with their hormones, their only options would be to either compete against men or give up their track and field career.

These rules will be put into effect in November, specifically in mid-distance races of 400 meter to a mile. These races are most affected by the levels of testosterone, since they require not only speed, but also power and endurance.

However, this new rule has already received immense pushback and controversy, as many challenges the binary of male and female. The condition of hyperandrogegism is not uncommon among female athletes, as they experience elevated levels of testosterone. This rule would require these female athletes to lower their hormones for an extended period of at least six months to even grant them access and eligibility for competing in the quarter mile to a mile race in major races like the Olympics.

Other options also appear bleak to the athletes that the rules applied to, including hormonal therapy, restricted performances to national meets, competing against men, competing in intersex events, moving to a different distance range, or giving up their careers as athletes completely.

This rule was meant to ensure “fair and meaningful competition within the female classification” in a statement released by the International Association of Athletics Federations, short for the I.A.A.F. The association also said that this rule is by no means judging or questioning the sex of any athlete as the athletes would be under no obligation to go through surgical measures of lowering their hormones. They added that this rule will be applied to those female athlete with a testosterone level over five nano moles per liter. In reference to that number, an average female has 0.12 to 1.79 nano moles per liter, while an average male has 7.7 to 29.4 nano moles per liter.

This rule was a result of a study published in 2017 that investigated enhanced athletic performances as a result of elevated testosterone levels in females. Due to the competitive nature of international events like the Olympics, the I.A.A.F decides to implement this rule to ensure fairness.

This was not the first attempt by the I.A.A.F to regulate fairness among female athletes with higher testosterone levels. In 2015, their appeal was blocked by the Supreme Court which rejected I.A.A.F’s claims and requested more quantifiable evidence.

Many have voiced their rejections and discontentment towards this rule. Katrina Karkazis, a senior fellow at the Global Health Justice Partnership at Yale, said that this rule is essentially forcing female athlete with this condition to face a “choice of no choice.” Paul Melia, the president of Canadian Centre of Ethics in Sport, chimed in on Wednesday over an interview that females with hyperandrogegism still identify and are physically females and therefore “have a human right to participate in sport in the gender they identify with.”