Gender confusion: Part 2

By Robbert Wijtman

 

Imagine your parents are blessed with the live birth of a healthy baby girl in Algeria. You grow up strong and pretty. Boys pay attention to you. Life is good. You are also talented at sports. Your father, a boxer, inspires you to follow his path. You keep winning until you earn a gold medal at a World Championships. After the competition, a cheek swab polymerization test reveals you have a genetic marker for the SRY gene, typically found on the Y chromosome. Based solely on this test, you are classified as male, despite your appearance and life experiences. Upon further study, it is found that you have undescended testes with type 2, 5-alpha reductase deficiency. This is the inability to convert testosterone to dihydrotestosterone, the form it is used in the body. The condition was previously undetected.

 

Now imagine your shock. The thoughts running through your head: Are you a fraud? Are you a woman on the outside, but something different inside? Is your life genuine? Have you been cheating? All you've ever known is that you're a woman and a great boxer.

 

Imane Khelif, (boxing) Algeria, faced this exact issue after a test at the 2023 World Boxing Championships, where she was stripped of the gold medals she had won at both the World Championships and the Olympics. The ramifications are still unfolding.

 

 

Other sports have begun gender testing. Starting September 1, 2025, World Athletics (WA) will require all female athletes participating in world-ranking competitions to undergo a one-time cheek swab or blood test to detect the presence of the SRY gene, which is normally found on the Y chromosome.

 

Reinstated gender testing for WA began at the 2025 World Athletics Championship, held in Tokyo, Japan, on September 13 to 21. WA estimated that half of the finalists would not pass the polymerized test currently used by WA. Because of concerns about the athletes' unanimity, the actual numbers and the athletes' names were not released. The organization did say 95% of the entries turned the test before the championships. They added that 50 to 60 athletes with Differential Sexual Development (DSD) are currently competing.

 

In an article by Karleigh Webb, published by Out Sports on September 22, 2025, it is stated that it may not be that simple:

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'A new report by World Athletics claims that 50 to 60 athletes, who would have failed the current sex verification testing mandate adopted for World Athletics Championships, have been finalists in elite world championship track and field events since 2000.

The claims were made during a presentation by the head of health and sciences for the governing body, Dr Stéphane Bermon. He says from data collected between 2000 and 2023, there had been 135 finalists who have a difference in sexual development (DSD), as defined by World Athletics — the international governing body for track and field — in varied international competitions, with an estimated 50 to 60 being finalists in more than one event.

In the presentation, Dr. Bermon also claims that such cases were 151.9 times more likely to reach an international championship.

The researcher who first found the SRY gene, Dr. Andrew Sinclair, has criticized the use of his research for sex testing in sports competition. In August, he publicly voiced his opposition saying that the science does not support the contentions of governing bodies like World Athletics that the test is an accurate barometer. “Using SRY to establish biological sex is wrong because all it tells you is whether or not the gene is present,” he continued. “It does not tell you how SRY is functioning, whether a testis has formed, whether testosterone is produced and, if so, whether it can be used by the body.” “World Athletics asserts the SRY gene is a reliable proxy for determining biological sex,”  Sinclair told the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute. “But, biological sex is much more complex, with chromosomal, gonal, hormonal and secondary sex characteristics all playing a role.” - K. Webb, World Athletics claims over 50 recent women’s finalists would have failed its new sex test, September 22, 2025, OUT SPORTS.

 

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WA president Sebastian Coe remains adamant about gender testing. Coe, in a statement about the new regulations, said, “The philosophy that we hold dear in World Athletics is the protection and the promotion of the integrity of women’s sport.”; “We are saying, at elite level, for you to compete in the female category, you have to be biologically female.”.

 

How did we get here?

The original Olympic gender testing protocol primarily involved searching for the presence of Barr Bodies on the nucleus of a cell donated by the athlete being tested, and/or a testosterone level test. Barr Bodies are only found on the nucleus of a female cell. They hold one of the two X chromosomes in a normal female cell, as only one copy is needed; having two might be detrimental. Testosterone tests primarily had an absolute allowable level of testosterone to compete in the women's division. Testosterone, being the primary male hormone, was seen as an indicator of maleness.

 

There were several issues with both tests. For example, a Klynfelter's syndrome (XXY) individual would have Barr Bodies, but would present as a male. Furthermore, the individual would typically have a lower testosterone level for a male but a higher one for a female. Or an individual with Turner's Syndrome (XO) would present as female, have low testosterone levels, but not have Barr Bodies.

 

Approximately 1 in 2000 to 1 in 4000 births have ambiguous genitalia. That is, it could be either sex. The decision is often left up to the parents. Proper hormonal treatments are provided at the appropriate time. The individual may have no idea of any difference between themself and others of their sex, until they do.

 

The remedy to many of the issues and lawsuits the International Olympic Committee (IOC) faced was to abandon universal mandatory gender testing in 1999. In a response to some pushback from international sports federations, the IOC, later, allowed individual federations to set their own gender policies.

Of the 35 International Federations of Olympic Sports, only 5 maintained a gender-testing protocol. These are basketball, judo, skiing, volleyball, and weightlifting.

 

Some of the sports that continue gender testing have adopted inclusiveness policies that allow for variations in athletes' testing. For example, weightlifting offers an open gender class in some competitions.

 

World Boxing and World Athletics have initiated changes that may significantly alter the Olympics. The complications and ramifications are only now beginning to come to light. Many are speculating about where this might lead.

 

Click here for part 1