When the Olympics Wants You to Take Drugs

What It Covers

World Athletics requires female sprinter Christine Mboma and other athletes with naturally high testosterone to take medication or undergo surgery to compete, despite being assigned female at birth and never questioning their biology.

Key Questions Answered

• •DSD Policy Impact: World Athletics regulations force women with differences of sex development to lower testosterone through oral contraceptives or surgery, creating health risks including blood clots, fatigue, and requiring lifelong hormone therapy if choosing surgical removal of internal testes.
• •Eligibility Rule Changes: Regulations evolved from restricting only middle distances in 2021 to banning DSD athletes from all events in 2023, reducing testosterone threshold to 2.5 nanomoles per liter and requiring six months of consistent suppression before competition eligibility returns.
• •Medical Ethics Conflict: The World Medical Association explicitly opposes these policies as medically unethical, stating doctors should not prescribe medications to people who don't need them purely for sports eligibility, yet athletes face career-ending choices without resources to legally challenge regulations.
• •Career Economics Pressure: Athletes like Mboma lack financial resources and time to fight regulations through legal channels because not competing means no income, effectively forcing compliance with medication protocols to maintain their twelve-year career window that otherwise becomes just one year.