The Olympic Gold Medallist Caster Semenya’s Naturally High Testosterone Levels Are Said to Boost Her Sporting Prowess, but is This Really the Case?
Caster Semenya, South African athlete and Olympic gold medallist, has been embroiled in controversy for much of her career over her higher-thanusual testosterone level, a disorder of sex development (DSD) known as hyperandrogenism. Semenya has recently been at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne, where she lost an appeal against the new rule proposed by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), the governing body for athletics, that prevents female athletes with hyperandrogenism from competing in events from 400m to 1,500m if their testosterone level is above five nanomoles per litre. For comparison, South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust gives reference ranges for testosterone levels of 0.7 to 2.8 nanomoles per litre in women, and 10 to 30 nanomoles per litre in men. We do not know the details of Caster’s medical record other than that she was born and raised as a female baby, infant and girl and went on to become a talented athlete.
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