July 30, 2012 at 6:46am 58 notes
olympicssportsnewsscience
Source: Los Angeles Times
Olympic Games and the tricky science of telling men from women: Gender tests may be the most controversial obstacle the athletes face. The London Games tries a new approach based on testosterone. Consider the Spanish hurdler Maria Jose Martinez-Patiño. A gender test revealed that she had a Y chromosome, which normally makes a person male. She also had complete androgen insensitivity syndrome, or CAIS, which prevented her body from responding properly to testosterone and caused her to develop as a woman. … For the London Games, officials are going by a new set of rules that shifts the focus from DNA to testosterone, a hormone that aids muscle development, endurance and speed. To a group of increasingly vocal skeptics, the very notion of gender testing is flawed and efforts to measure it biologically are doomed to fail. But some experts said they had to try anyway. Photo: South Africa’s Caster Semenya, center, was singled out for gender testing at the 2009 World Championships in Athletics in Berlin. She eventually was cleared to compete. Credit: Martin Meissner / Associated Press

Olympic Games and the tricky science of telling men from women: Gender tests may be the most controversial obstacle the athletes face. The London Games tries a new approach based on testosterone.

Consider the Spanish hurdler Maria Jose Martinez-Patiño. A gender test revealed that she had a Y chromosome, which normally makes a person male. She also had complete androgen insensitivity syndrome, or CAIS, which prevented her body from responding properly to testosterone and caused her to develop as a woman.

… For the London Games, officials are going by a new set of rules that shifts the focus from DNA to testosterone, a hormone that aids muscle development, endurance and speed.

To a group of increasingly vocal skeptics, the very notion of gender testing is flawed and efforts to measure it biologically are doomed to fail. But some experts said they had to try anyway.

Photo: South Africa’s Caster Semenya, center, was singled out for gender testing at the 2009 World Championships in Athletics in Berlin. She eventually was cleared to compete. Credit: Martin Meissner / Associated Press

  1. randomwhisky reblogged this from oodlyenough
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  6. dnanotes reblogged this from mysliceoffun and added:
    There is just one gene on the Y chromosome that starts male pattern development. I totally agree with this shift to...
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  14. socialjusticefandomblogger reblogged this from allrightcallmefred and added:
    ok who are these “experts” and why did they just have to try. What is this bullshit. The above commentary is perfect I...
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  18. allrightcallmefred reblogged this from latimes and added:
    I shouldn’t have to tell any of my followers this, but there is no physical litmus test you can do for gender. There...
  19. interfacetalent said: WOW! this is really an interesting story. The saddest part it that these women are subjected to these types of tests. An athlete is just that, an athlete. Asking an Olympian representing a country to take tests to prove masculinity is really tragic.
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