Sex verification in sports

Sex verification in sports (also known as gender verification, or loosely as gender determination or a sex test) occurs because eligibility of athletes to compete is restricted whenever sporting events are limited to a single sex, which is generally the case, as well as when events are limited to mixed-sex teams of defined composition (e.g., most pairs events). Practice has varied tremendously over time, across borders and by competitive level. Issues have arisen multiple times in the Olympic games and other high-profile sporting competitions, for example allegations that certain male athletes attempted to compete as women or that certain female athletes had intersex conditions perceived to give unfair advantage. The topic of sex verification is related to the more recent question of how to treat transgender people in sports. Sex verification is not typically conducted on athletes competing in the male category because there is generally no perceived competitive advantage for a female or intersex athlete to compete in male categories.

Sex verification in sports began in the 1940s with "femininity certificates" provided by a physician. It subsequently evolved into visual inspections, physical examinations, chromosome testing, and later testosterone level testing.^[1] These tests were all designed to ensure that athletes were only allowed to compete as their sex, but mostly resulted in the exclusion of intersex athletes from female sports.^[2] Mandatory sex verification testing was fuelled by anxieties surrounding the "unfemininity" of some female athletes, as more participated in masculine events (e.g., track and field).^[3]

Sex verification can be substantially more complicated than checking whether a person's sex chromosome pair^[a] is XX vs. XY, or comparing their levels of key sex hormones to distinct reference ranges, to determine an athlete's sex. This is due to variations in human biology where some people are not unambiguously female or male, not all cells in a person's body have the same genotype or the presence of other genetic abnormalities. These reasons, among others, led sporting bodies to abandon chromosome testing towards the end of the 20th century and use hormone testing instead. The downside of hormone testing, however, is that policies on hyperandrogenism (women with naturally higher testosterone) were required, which have sparked both public debate and legal battles.

^ Reeser, J C (October 2005). "Gender identity and sport: is the playing field level?". British Journal of Sports Medicine. 39 (10): 695–9. doi:10.1136/bjsm.2005.018119. PMC 1725041. PMID 16183763.
^ Ruth Padawer (28 June 2016). "The Humiliating Practice of Sex-Testing Female Athletes". The New York Times. Retrieved 25 August 2016.
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[1] Reeser, J C (October 2005). "Gender identity and sport: is the playing field level?". British Journal of Sports Medicine. 39 (10): 695–9. doi:10.1136/bjsm.2005.018119. PMC 1725041. PMID 16183763.

[2] Ruth Padawer (28 June 2016). "The Humiliating Practice of Sex-Testing Female Athletes". The New York Times. Retrieved 25 August 2016.

[:4-3] Cite error: The named reference :4 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

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