Despite concerns raised by medical experts and Jamaican athletes, sports medicine specialist Dr Paul Wright says the response to World Athletics’ decision requiring athletes to undergo a one-time genetic test to verify their gender is being exaggerated.

Effective this Monday, athletes wishing to compete in the female category at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo and beyond will need to undergo a test for the SRY gene, which is part of the Y chromosome and causes male characteristics to develop. They will be only eligible to compete in the female category if the test is negative for the Y chromosome.

It’s part of World Athletics’ push to better manage the eligibility of transgender and Difference in Sex Development (DSD) athletes, with South Africa’s Olympic champion Caster Semenya firmly opposing these regulations.

It’s understood that as of last Tuesday, close to 20 athletes who will represent Jamaica at the World Championships were tested in the Bahamas during the NACAC Championships while the others were in the process of undergoing tests in Europe, the USA, and in Kingston.

However, as reported in other media outlets, 400m hurdler Janieve Russell says the test, conducted via a cheek swab or blood test, is discriminatory, while sprinter Jodean Williams calls it intrusive.

Wright, though, told the Jamaica Observer that the test is a step in the right direction in ensuring parity in women’s disciplines.

“Those that are afraid are because it’s something new,” he says. “Whenever something new comes, everybody is very apprehensive about it until it is shown to them over and over again.

“It’s not foolproof — it is 99 point something per cent accurate so there still are mistakes that can be made but at least it helps us to decide that women compete against women and not ladies with the advantage of testosterone in their pre-pubertal years that have this distinct physical advantage that they can use to compete against women and be successful.”

However, genetics expert and deputy director of the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, Professor Andrew Sinclair doesn’t believe the SRY gene is a reliable marker for determining biological sex.

“Biological sex is much more complex, with chromosomal, gonadal (testis/ovary), hormonal and secondary sex characteristics all playing a role,” he says.

“Using SRY to establish biological sex is wrong because all it tells you is whether or not the gene is present. 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.”

Wright, however, disagrees and credits World Athletics for going down this route.

“It is an effective test that can determine male from female and it has been used in the past and it has been passed by the authorities,” he says. “World Athletics want to have it done again this time just to see if they can bring down to a minimum of a percentage point the possibility of a male competing against females.

“This is just another gear in the armoury that will help us to decide who the females are that they compete against each other and not a male who has had the obvious advantage of testosterone which gives them superiority in athletic performance being able to compete against a female who never had any internal testosterone in her whole life.”

Sinclair says there is no clear guidance on how to perform the test properly to avoid false results and provided an example.

“It is worth noting these tests are sensitive,” he says. “If a male lab technician conducts the test, he can inadvertently contaminate it with a single skin cell and produce a false positive SRY result.”

However, Wright says that athletes can contest the decision if they believe the test result is a false positive.

“You have an opportunity to protest and if you protest and don’t get through, you go to the Court of Arbitration for Sport,” he says. “They can’t do this thing and it’s final, you have a whole heap of ways of complaining, of testing, ask them to re-test, look at how the test was done, get your expert to look at how the test was done, all these sorts of things.

“If a mistake is made, protest and prove that the test was contaminated. If a test is contaminated by a male person doing the test, just do over the test man, that’s basic one-two-three.”

World Athletics President Seb Coe said in July, “It is really important in a sport that is permanently trying to attract more women that they enter a sport believing there is no biological glass ceiling.”