The International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) have again come up with some mythical science on gender identification.

They had discarded sex/gender testing years ago. However, they have now devised new guidelines and policies in response to Caster Semenya’s recent dominance in the 800m and 1500m events.

The South African’s triumph has fuelled jealousy and questions about the legitimacy of her femininity with a reporter calling one of her performance “Breathtakingly Butch”.

The new policies are not set out to determine if one is really female, but to zoom in on female competitors with elevated androgen levels not due to ingestion of performance enhancing drugs (PEDs), but naturally produced by the body.

These policies claim high levels of inborn testosterone in women (caused by varying medical problems) cause an unfair advantage and must be regulated. The new policies are based on the hypothesis that androgenic hormones (dihydrotestosterone and testosterone) give an unfair edge.

In reality, the policies focus mainly on testosterone. Females born with elevated levels of testosterone or a condition called disorders of sex development (DSD) or gender dysphoria are assumed to have the advantage over females with normally regulated oestrogen or female hormone.

These DSD individuals were assigned female sex at birth, but after puberty developed a more masculine body because of dysphoria in sex development and are called Female-to-Male (FtM) transsexuals.

The irony of this condition is that even though blood testosterone levels may be high in these individuals, blood testosterone level usually only give an indication or signal of the androgen, but has minimal predictive value on athletic performance.

The effects of testosterone are determined by the androgen binding to receptors and causing a cascade of reactions. In the case of these females (FtM) with abnormalities of the androgen receptors, there is high-circulating serum testosterone levels, but the androgen or testosterone action is impaired due to genetically determined abnormalities of the molecular properties of the androgen receptor (androgen insensitivity syndrome). It is much like a baby born with an extra finger on one of the hands. It is there but has no functional significance.

The individual sports federations and organisations have to decide on the eligibility of FtM transsexual athletes in their sport. This is done by exposure to a medical evaluation before a panel of gynaecologists, endocrinologists, psychologists, internal medicine specialists, and experts on gender/transgender issues.

After the person is determined to be FtM, some may be recommended for hormone therapy and surgery to alleviate the gender dysphoria, some may need only one of the two treatment options, while others may need neither.

Surgical treatment might include hysterectomy and or oophorectomy (surgical removal of the ovaries). There is no international medical prototype to prove the efficacy of hormone therapy and or surgery for this condition.

Hormone therapy is associated with increased risks of cardiovascular episodes and some cancers. If the FtM’s uterus and ovaries are removed, complications might set in much similar to genital mutilation. The IAAF and IOC have not come up with a litmus test for gender verification. The policy does not indicate who should be tested and on what grounds.

An athlete may be examined if there is doubt or if there is a challenge to her sex or the margin of her athletic win. Any Jamaican woman who is muscular or sets an Olympic or world record may, therefore, be challenged, and this is why we must rally against the unfair treatment of Semenya.

FtM transsexuals doing the pole vault and hammer throw are said to have the most advantage from this condition, yet they were not included in the group ordered to carry out these special procedures in order to compete.

Only FtMs who specialise in the 400m hurdles, 800m and 1500m were so classified. Although the FtMs, who specialise in the 1500m event are said to have no advantage, this event was still included in the classification.

Is this black woman Caster Semenya from South Africa the sporting governing bodies’ target? Earlier in Semenya’s junior career she competed in Poland and was not even noticed because she did not excel at the junior games. When she smashed a national junior record at the African Championships in Mauritius, South African sporting authorities were ordered by the IAAF to perform gender tests on Semenya because someone blogged about her looking like a man.

The South African authorities performed the gender verification which allowed Semenya to then compete in Berlin in 2009. Caster Semenya won the gold medal in the women’s 800m in Berlin at the World Championships in Athletics. On that same day, according to the media, IAAF ordered Caster to do gender verification.

Semenya, according to reports, was subjected to hours of examination with legs reportedly in a stirrups whilst her genitalia was photographed repeatedly.

The IAAF decided to ban her from competition whilst they investigated. After about a year she was allowed to again compete and keep the medal that she had won in Berlin. She reportedly had to undergo trauma counselling to be able to perform again.

But why Semenya? She does not even rank on the IAAF men’s 800m or 1500m lists. While the world is watching, individuals assigned as males at birth who change their body to a more feminine body and are called Male-to-Female (MtF) transsexuals can decide that they want to compete as females. Their sports federations and organisations can pass them eligible as transsexual athletes in their sports.

The hormones administered to MtF athletes (oestrogen, anti-androgens) are not prohibited in sports. These are legal drugs not on the banned list. The MtFs, therefore, do not need a therapeutic use exemptions and will be able to compete against females.

These DSD individuals who were born males can compete as females because their levels of male hormone, testosterone, would be deemed ineffective to make them males even if they have testes.

There are also some Europeans with a variant form of haemoglobulin which gives an extra edge in marathon running because of the superior delivery of oxygen (O2) to muscle cells, yet they are allowed to compete without restriction.

I kid you not, I have suddenly lost my appetite for athletics.

Editor’ note: Dr Irving is a senior lecturer in the Department of Basic Medical Sciences, Faculty of Medical Sciences, The University of the West Indies, Mona.