Thread by @stevemagness

A few comments on this article in the @nytimes. Which I think is misleading and takes away from the discussion on DSD and the Semenya case: nytimes.com/2019/05/03/opi…

1. No one is arguing that Testosterone is be all end all to performance. ZERO people.

We are arguing that it does impact performance and explain SOME of the difference between men and women.

But more so: That Testosterone is a surrogate divider of sex.

RE: Divider of Sex.

Why is it used as a marker? Because the overlap between male and females is minimal. Just about Zero XX women have natural testosterone levels that reach the even the low male levels.

So it's used as a surrogate marker for sex to divide.

Think of it like this: We would use height to divide females and males IF 99.9% of males were taller than 6ft and 99% of women were shorter than 5'6.

Testosterone and Performance:

What the article does is confuse Testosterone being correlated with performance and its impact on performance.

Whether or not it is correlated with performance depends on the group being sampled.

Take a group of world class women 100m runners, and testosterone is NOT going to be the sole differentiating factor between the fastest and slowest runners.

Why? Performance is complex! No one factors explains much of performance, it doesn't mean that it doesn't matter.

In another thread I discussed why correlated T to performance in world class athletes is fraught with difficulty but to summarize:
-A large % of the sample is doped which artificially raises and lowers T levels in blood samples
-Fatigue, when samples are taken, etc.

We can see some of these holes in the article mentioned. It quotes a study comparing weight throwers and distance runners...

Distance athletes if doing high volume will suppress some Testosterone because of training load.

That doesn't mean Testosterone doesn't help performance

How much of a difference does Testosterone make and what's its role?

-We know from studies of athletes on steroids int he 1980's that artificial Testosterone boosted 800m performance in women by 5-7 seconds. That's incredible at the highest level.

-We know that when Semenya was made to reduce Testosterone levels during roughly the 2012-2015 period (because of the new rules). Her performance declined from 1:55 towards a norm of 2:00-2:02 range.

That data alone shows the impact T has on a singular athletes performance.

So testosterone absolutely matters. Especially on an individual level. But it's important to remember that the reason Testosterone is used is because it's a surrogate marker. NOT because it's the only thing that matters for performance between men and women.

Finally, the best evidence is when we look at the rate of progression of boys and girls in a variety of athletic endeavors as they go from per-pubescent to post-puberty.

There performances look like the following:

Or another few charts from studies that show the impact of puberty (and soaring testosterone) on male athletic performance.

Articles like this remind me of the 1960's argument over steroids. You had researchers saying "steroids don't help performance" While all of the athletes were screaming "This stuff absolutely works! We need to regulate!"

So what?
Articles like this distract and take us away from the main issue of DSD and Semenya.

Testosterone is a surrogate marker. It absolutely plays a large role in performance. BUT is it the best marker to separate sport by sexes? No idea.

Stating that Testosterone is a myth changes the dialogue. It makes it seem like the IAAF is out to get women.

The reality is because of testosterone (and other factors) the IAAF is faced with trying to protect the majority of women.

IF we didn't divide by sex and had one big category... zero women could compete at the professional level. The fastest female 400m runner in the world last year was "beaten" by over 5,000 men...

What we have to wrestle with is.... what are the ethics of protecting the majority so that they can compete, while not harming the minority.

It's an impossible task. But we need smart minds on that question, NOT whether or not testosterone helps performance...