Bioethicist celebrates end of testosterone testing in women’s sports

Scope, the School of Medicine’s award-winning medical blog, recently ran a story about bioethicist KATRINA KARKAZIS, a senior research scholar at the Center for Biomedical Ethics, who was closely involved in a case challenging testosterone testing in women’s sports.

Scope reports that, as of July 27, female track and field athletes no longer must have natural testosterone levels below a certain threshold to compete in international events. That’s as a result of a decision by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Karkazis spent a year working on the case as an adviser to Dutee Chand. The 19-year-old Indian sprinter challenged regulations mandating that female athletes have a certain testosterone level or undergo medical interventions to lower it in order to compete against women in track and field events governed by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), the international regulatory body of track and field.

The ruling suspends testing for two years, but Karkazis expects the decision will lead to permanent changes, including a reevalution by the International Olympic Committee.

“I didn’t think it was our time,” Karkasiz said. “I thought there were still too many entrenched ideas about testosterone being a ‘male hormone’ and it not belonging in women.”

Karkazis said, “You can’t test for sex. It’s impossible. There’s no one trait you can look at to classify people. There are many traits and there are always exceptions.”

Read the entire story in Scope.