It is 'unethical' to request tests on DSD athletes, says sports scientist

Dr Shane Heffernan believes people need to acknowledge the difference between transgender and DSD athletes.

Transcript

00:00Understand the difference between the transgender athlete story,

00:04which obviously spent the last couple of years has been pretty significant,

00:08and the DSD athlete story.

00:11They're different stories.

00:13You can have an opinion on whether each set of athletes should be included or not,

00:16but the facts of how it's a debate at all are vastly different and important to consider.

00:22So that's one thing I think that's important for people to acknowledge.

00:26If you are to have a DSD and if to be an advantage to you athletically,

00:31you would need to have that androgen sensitivity as well.

00:35You would need to have a number of other genetic characteristics that would be beneficial

00:39for you for competing.

00:41Some of our work in genetics has kind of shown that there's a couple of

00:45single nucleotide polymorphisms that have like advantages that would help here.

00:49So you kind of need a collection of all of these things.

00:52And as well, there's been a lot of molecular work recently identifying

00:57different genetic variations that exist with DSD people, not athletes,

01:02that can give them certain physical characteristics.

01:05Some of them will be beneficial.

01:06Some of them will not be.

01:07Do you know what I mean?

01:08Unmedically necessarily medicate to compete in a sport is a very difficult,

01:15moral, digestive thing.

01:17So for example, the World Medical Association has pretty much condemned that.

01:22And sporting organizations have done the same.

01:25In our surveys where we've asked elite athletes,

01:29they do not believe that it is ethical to request this.