Failing the Gender Test

Last week a strapping young Indian runner named Santhi took the silver medal in the 800-meter dash at the Doha Asia Games, just a few days later a medical board revoked her award after she failed a "gender test".

What is a gender test?

I checked online. Google doesn't seem to think there is one that doctor's can agree on. Rather, there are dozens of online questionnaires pulled from the back pages of women's magazines that tell you how mannish or womanish you really are.

Apparently the issue wasn't so clear as some doctor asking her to drop her running shorts. Indeed, it took a team of doctors with extensive pedigrees to come up with a gender diagnosis .

According to the Hindu:

An expert speaking on condition of anonymity, said that normally such cases were handled by a panel including a gynaecologist, an endocrinologist, a psychologist and a genetic expert, among others, and all possible examinations and verifications done, including any tests if necessary, before a decision was forwarded to the appropriate authorities.

Yet despite the strangeness of the test, somehow Santhi seems to have failed the same test twice. Three years ago she applied for a job working on the Indian Southern Railway and the Chief Medical officer objected to her filling a quota for female workers.

In New York people applying for a license can swap their gender with a doctor's note,but in the world of competitive athletics it seems that the issue is a little more hard and fast.

But there seems to be a happy epilogue to the story so far. The Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, M. Karunanidhi presented her with a check for $35,000 and a "huge" plasma television set to acknowledge her achievement.

First in Bodyhack