IIUC, the usual anti-doping tests are for testosterone-to-epitestosterone ratios, not absolute testosterone levels. I don’t know how that would show up for hormone treatments like this.
This is my understanding as well, which I left somewhat fuzzy because, frankly, I’m not sure how detailed everyone really cares about that.
Personally, I think this is less an issue of discrimination and more one of competition. People taking testosterone (or other PEDs), for whatever reason, shouldn’t be competing against people who aren’t. It’s not discrimination if the rules apply to everyone. (And yes, I know there may be medical reasons for taking it, but I don’t see that as a reason to make an exception - it just means you probably should pick a different activity that you’re more medically suited for.)
For some (many?) professional sports there’s therapeutic use exemptions which can be obtained, with varying levels of scrutiny, for medically necessitated use of otherwise banned substances. Anyone know if that’s true for amateur organizations like high school and college sports as well?
Fair point about the level of detail, Craig. I guess that is pretty inside-baseball (zing!) level stuff. :)
A birth female will probably never hold a record in this category again, perhaps they will just have to live with identifying as winners rather than you know, winning.
The IAAF (track and field) has made a change to their testosterone limit rule that affects transgender men-to-women competing as women, as well as women who naturally produce high testosterone levels.
Seems like a reasonable compromise to me, although I’m sure there will be some backlash from supporters of those affected directly, like South African Olympian Caster Semenya.
Just let them computer with the men.
Renee Richards was ranked as high as 20th as a female tennis player. She was in her early 40s. She was also never a professional player as a male. My guess is if she had transgendered in her 20s she would have been a top 5 female player.
So it’s a weird thing. Men who have transgendered to women will have some natural advantages. It seems a bit unfair.
Yes, everyone should play video games together instead of sportsing. :P
Pfft, more sexist exclusion… real girls don’t play video games.
More than a bit.
There’s nothing “fair” about competing in athletics. If higher natural testosterone levels confer an advantage, “talent” is basically just a synonym for “natural testosterone levels” (along with natural muscle density, blood oxygenation, freakishly long Michael Phelps feet, etc, etc).
So, uh, burn the whole thing down, I guess.
I’m looking forward to the “cybernetic limbs and use-whatever-drugs-you-want Olympics”. Only then will we have a truley level playing field.
But we traditionally separate men and women in competition. Transgender women are essentially men, from that perspective. They should compete with men.
If you want to get away from separating sexes for competition, I guess you could, but then get used to never have women win, pretty much ever.
But now they’re penalizing normal women that just happen to have a higher testosterone level, in addition to transgender athletes. Should we start disallowing really tall players from basketball in the Olympics? That seems pretty damn unfair that someone who’s 7’6" has a drastic advantage over a 5’2" player.
A basketball league for shorter people would be pretty cool; it’s pretty crazy what the average height is now of an NBA player.
cis-women
Sure, all the rules for the Olympics are arbitrary. People tend to think that male / female is a real, sacrosanct delineation, but modern medicine tells us it isn’t really, so we need to start thinking of if as essentially arbitrary too.
I mean this gets complicated. Testosterone levels were already used for male athletes, and having levels above a predetermined threshold was grounds for disqualification. Which you still had men who would have higher than average testosterone levels, so is that rule unfair to them?
Honestly it’s one of the ‘least bad’ options available. It’s impartial, and the threshold is such that it is exceedingly rare for it to be topped under normal circumstances. It does have the unfortunate side effect where it sets a target number for those in elite competition, as in you should expend what means you have to reach as close to that level as possible, as competition will often implicitly favor athletes who are closer to the max than not.
It would be interesting if you had a league for under 6 feet and under people. You’d still have some people who dunk, but it would be interesting basketball.