{"id":44576,"date":"2019-05-08T17:45:46","date_gmt":"2019-05-08T16:45:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/?p=44576"},"modified":"2019-05-13T20:02:39","modified_gmt":"2019-05-13T19:02:39","slug":"medical-and-ethical-implications-of-the-iaaf-participation-regulation-for-women-with-differences-of-sex-development","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2019\/05\/08\/medical-and-ethical-implications-of-the-iaaf-participation-regulation-for-women-with-differences-of-sex-development\/","title":{"rendered":"Medical and ethical implications of the IAAF participation regulation for women with differences of sex development"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Sheree Bekker &amp; Anna Posbergh<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">On the 1<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">st<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> of May 2019, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), a private tribunal for the purpose of handling disputes between athletes and sports organisations, handed down <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tas-cas.org\/fileadmin\/user_upload\/Media_Release_Semenya_ASA_IAAF_decision.pdf\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">its ruling<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in the case of Caster Semenya and Athletics South Africa versus the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF). The ruling upheld the 2018 <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.iaaf.org\/about-iaaf\/documents\/rules-regulations#collapseregulations\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">IAAF participation regulations for women with differences of sex development<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, which means that certain women participating in certain IAAF events (400m-1 mile) must now medically maintain a testosterone level of 5nmol\/L or below in order to compete. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Scientific evidence<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The reasoning behind the regulation is that women with naturally high testosterone levels, and whose bodies are ostensibly highly sensitive to that testosterone, have a significant performance advantage over their peers in certain events. However, as Tannenbaum and Bekker have previously written in an <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bmj.com\/content\/364\/bmj.l1120\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">editorial<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The BMJ<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, the paucity and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/link.springer.com\/article\/10.1007\/s40318-019-00143-w\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">erroneous nature<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> of scientific evidence underpinning this claim is cause for concern. Further, pervasive cultural myths continue to reinforce <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/05\/03\/opinion\/testosterone-caster-semenya.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201coutdated and misguided ideas about testosterone\u201d<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> as the \u2018male\u2019 hormone<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/muse.jhu.edu\/article\/702853\/summary\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">perpetuate historical systems<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> of imperial, racial, heteronormative, and gendered power divisions. The recent <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bmj.com\/content\/364\/bmj.l1120\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">editorial in <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The BMJ<\/span><\/i><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> unpicked these issues in detail, so here we focus on the implications of this ruling.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Human rights <\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The CAS panel ruled that the regulation is a case of \u201c<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tas-cas.org\/fileadmin\/user_upload\/CAS_Executive_Summary__5794_.pdf\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">necessary discrimination<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201d in order to protect the \u201cfairness\u201d of women\u2019s sport. Yet this line of argument has its legacy in the\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2016\/07\/03\/magazine\/the-humiliating-practice-of-sex-testing-female-athletes.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">long and problematic history of \u201csex testing\u201d women athletes<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. It is no accident that the vast majority of athletes affected <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/muse.jhu.edu\/article\/702853\/summary\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">are black women and women of colour from the global south<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0who do not conform to Western ideals of femininity. In this way, it is important to understand both this history and the outcomes of such policy, including the ways in which regulations may entrench existing power relations.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Numerous organisations have since condemned the IAAF regulation, including the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/undocs.org\/A\/HRC\/40\/L.10\/Rev.1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">United Nations Human Rights Council<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> stating that such regulation contravenes international human rights law. Indeed, despite the final ruling, the CAS panel itself <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tas-cas.org\/fileadmin\/user_upload\/CAS_Executive_Summary__5794_.pdf\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">unanimously concluded<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u201cthe DSD Regulations are prima facie discriminatory since they impose differential treatment based on protected characteristics\u201d. Thus, this leaves the door open for Semenya and ASA to possibly take their case to the Swiss Federal Tribunal, Constitutional Court of South Africa, or European Court of Human Rights.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Medical ethics<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">For eligibility in certain events, women with naturally high testosterone levels are now expected to lower these levels through hormonal contraceptives. The World Medical Association (WMA) has <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wma.net\/news-post\/wma-urges-physicians-not-to-implement-iaaf-rules-on-classifying-women-athletes\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">demanded the withdrawal of the regulations<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, urging physicians:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cto oppose and refuse to perform any test or administer any treatment or medicine which is not in accordance with medical ethics, and which might be harmful to the athlete using it, especially to artificially modifying blood constituents, biochemistry or endogenous testosterone\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Prescribing hormone suppressants to comply with a regulation rather than the needs of a patient, is medically unethical and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/inews.co.uk\/inews-lifestyle\/women\/caster-semenya-testosterone-verdict-hormone-treatment-south-african-athlete-dsd\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">potentially dangerous to the athletes<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Considering this ethical violation and the weak scientific data supporting the IAAF policy, the WMA has advised physicians to <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">not<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> prescribe hormonal suppressants, drawing attention to the wellbeing of the athletes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Policy implications<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">A key concern about this particular policy is <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.iaaf.org\/news\/press-release\/cas-female-eligibility-regulations\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">its status as a \u201cliving document<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201d. This means that this regulation can evolve, and thus this CAS ruling does not constitute an accountability measure or precedent against any future update or change. Indeed, this has already happened. During the course of the CAS hearing, the IAAF shifted the goalposts in <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tas-cas.org\/fileadmin\/user_upload\/CAS_Executive_Summary__5794_.pdf\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">changing the wording of the policy to focus exclusively on 46XY females<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> (this was not specified in the 2018 iteration of the policy, likely due to issues of confidentiality given the small number of athletes who may be part of this group). This places the focus of this regulation on an even smaller group of vulnerable women with DSD. Further, it is of concern that this shift now potentially sets the scene for \u2018necessary discrimination\u2019 against women who are transgender and their future regulation in sport. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Just because regulations exist does not mean that they are evidence-based, human-rights considered, or even ethical.\u00a0This ruling will have ripple effects across the very fabric of sport, and we must continue to interrogate the consequences, which are about more than sport alone.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2019\/05\/sheree_bekker.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-44577\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2019\/05\/sheree_bekker.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"160\" height=\"160\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2019\/05\/sheree_bekker.jpg 160w, https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2019\/05\/sheree_bekker-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 160px) 100vw, 160px\" \/><\/a>Sheree Bekker<\/strong> is a Prize Research Fellow in sports injury prevention and safeguarding at the University of Bath, UK. Follow her on Twitter @shereebekker <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2019\/05\/anna_posbergh.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-44578\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2019\/05\/anna_posbergh.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"160\" height=\"160\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2019\/05\/anna_posbergh.jpg 160w, https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2019\/05\/anna_posbergh-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 160px) 100vw, 160px\" \/><\/a>Anna Posbergh<\/strong> is a PhD student studying sex testing and women in sport at the University of Maryland, USA. Follow her on Twitter @annaposbergh<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><strong>Competing interests<\/strong>: none to declare<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sheree Bekker &amp; Anna Posbergh On the 1st of May 2019, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), a private tribunal for the purpose of handling disputes between athletes and [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn btn-secondary understrap-read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2019\/05\/08\/medical-and-ethical-implications-of-the-iaaf-participation-regulation-for-women-with-differences-of-sex-development\/\">More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44579,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - 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