Thread by @honestsport_ew

A thread:

In 2012, Ugandan 800m runner Annet Negesa (1.59.08) was withdrawn from the Olympics because she had naturally high levels of testosterone.

She says she felt obliged to undergo surgery to comply with the IAAF hyperandrogenism regulations.

telegraph.co.uk/athletics/2019…

1/

She identified IAAF doctor Stephane Bermon as the man examining her in a hospital in Nice, France.

Negesa underwent a gonadectomy/castration back home in Uganda performed by another doctor.

Negesa says she was proposed this surgery.

2/

The IAAF denies that they propose athletes surgery and they deny that Dr. Stephane Bermon recommended Negesa surgery.

However in a scientific study in which Negesa was most likely one of the patients, athletes were "proposed" gonadectomies.

Bermon co-authored the study.

3/

Again the IAAF denies Bermon proposed Negesa surgery.

Yet Bermon was involved in Negesa's case. He admits it himself in the Chand CAS decision.

Bermon, describes himself as "the 'go to 'person for all matters relating to and
arising under the [Hyperandrogenism Regulations]"

4/

Bermon says he was "actively" involved in every IAAF hyperandrogenism case since 2011. Negesa's case was in 2012.

Bermon has also defended gonadectomies, a procedure which has been"demonized by bioethics brokers who cogitate in their beautiful Stanford offices"

5/

He says that surgery should be considered a viable way to lower testosterone levels and he has learnt this from the "very real situations of these African DSD athletes that I have encountered over the past 12 years"

Negesa would have been one of the athletes he dealt with

6/

Again, one can infer from Bermon's own words he was involved in Negesa's case.

So who was the doctor who Annet Negesa claims proposed her surgery?

Negesa also never received the essential after care needed after such an operation.

7/

After gonadectomies, patients need to have long-term hormonal treatment. In the co-authored Bermon study which Negesa was likely a part of it says the athletes were "proposed" estrogen replacement therapy.

Negesa never received this treatment.

8/

Negesa's body has been devoid of these crucial hormones since she underwent surgery in 2012.

In a discharge letter she was given in Uganda, it says the operating surgeon restrained from starting her on hormonal treatment following discussions with Dr. Bermon.

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Negesa says Bermon nor the operating doctor ever contacted her again.

Another athlete, I spoke to with @olga_koeln in our ARD documentary, now has osteoporosis after she too received no follow up support from the doctors who dealt with her.

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These are the results of a year long research we undertook at @hajoseppelt's ARD Doping editorial team

You can watch Negesa's interview in English here.

sportschau.de/hintergrund/vi…

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Negesa fell so ill after the operation she travelled back to her village as she thought she would die.

"Because I saw my life was going, I started to go back to the village. As I said, if it is to die, let me die from home."

More will follow in the coming days and weeks.

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