Global Coverage
Global Coverage on SRY Gene Testing Controversy.
This area is to signpost you to articles and broadcasts involving DSD experts. The reports featured below explore the scientific, ethical, and practical implications of requiring female athletes to undergo genetic testing to verify eligibility for women's competition and signpost to the perspectives of DSD experts.
Please note that dsdfamilies advocates for girls and women living with 46 XY, DSD who have always lived as girls and women, and whose legal sex - as per the UK Supreme Court ruling of April 2025 biological sex - has always been female. We welcome respectful debate and are keen to facilitate it.
Policy statements 2025
Mandatory SRY gene testing in athletes competing in the female category.
Author: The Human Genetics Society of Australasia, (HGSA), Aug 2025
About: The HGSA opposes the mandatory use of SRY gene testing for determining eligibility in the female sports category, calling it scientifically reductive, ethically unsound, and medically inappropriate. HGSA emphasises that the presence of SRY does not define sex or athletic capacity and that compulsory testing violates principles of informed consent, privacy, and non-discrimination. The Society urges all governing bodies to suspend SRY testing, acknowledge the complexity of sex development, and ensure any medical assessments are voluntary, evidence-based, and ethically governed.
Responses to the World Athletics Consultation – Recommendation to the eligibility conditions for the Female Category, March 2025.
dsdfamilies response to the World Athletics Consultation
Recommendation to the eligibility conditions for the Female Category, March 2025
About: dsdfamilies, a UK charity supporting people with Differences of Sex Development (DSD), and an invited stakeholder, strongly objects to World Athletics’ merger of DSD and transgender regulations. The organisation argues that these are distinct populations requiring separate, evidence-based policies. Mandatory or wholesale SRY testing is deemed unethical, impractical, and scientifically unsound. dsdfamilies calls for a dedicated DSD working group including endocrinologists, psychologists, and athlete representatives, and for rules that protect dignity, privacy, and informed consent. It urges World Athletics to recognise the biological and psychosocial diversity within DSD, avoid stigma, and base eligibility criteria on rigorous science and human rights principles.
Response from The Australia and New Zealand Society for Paediatric Endocrinology and Diabetes (ANZSPED) October 2025
About: ANZSPED rejects the new World Athletics eligibility rules as scientifically inaccurate, discriminatory, and unethical. It criticises the conflation of transgender and DSD athletes and the reliance on SRY or testosterone testing, which lacks clinical validity and disregards the diversity of androgen sensitivity. ANZSPED warns that such policies violate athletes’ privacy, autonomy, and dignity, exacerbate stigma, and ignore biological complexity. It urges World Athletics to abandon mandatory testing, recognise DSD and trans women as distinct populations, and adopt evidence-based, ethical, and inclusive governance frameworks.
Response from InterAction for Health and Human Rights 2025.
Submission on Proposed Guidelines for Women with ‘DSDs’ and Gender Diverse Women
About:InterAction for Health and Human Rights strongly opposes World Athletics’ proposed eligibility rules for women with differences of sex development (DSD). It argues that merging DSD and transgender regulations is scientifically unsound and ethically indefensible. Mandatory SRY testing and notions such as “male puberty” ignore biological diversity, lack evidence, and reclassify women’s sex without consent. InterAction stresses that all women registered female at birth should be eligible to compete in the female category. The proposals are disproportionate, stigmatise an already marginalised population, and risk reproducing harmful policies in sport and beyond.
Fair and safe eligibility criteria for women’s sport: The proposed testing regime is not justified, ethical, or viable - Scandinavian journal of medicine and science in sport (2024)
Authors: Alun G. Williams et al.
About: A peer-reviewed letter published in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports that argues the proposed regime for genetic testing of female athletes (including those with variations in sex characteristics) lacks solid scientific backing, raises serious ethical issues around consent and privacy, and is operationally unworkable.
Media - clinical DSD experts and sports scientists dsdfamilies has been working with
World Athletics’ mandatory genetic test for women athletes is misguided. I should know – I discovered the relevant gene in 1990 - Murdoch Children's Research Institute /The Conversation (Australia) Aug 25
Author: Professor Andrew Sinclair
About: DSD expert Andrew Sinclair who discovered the SRY gene, argues that World Athletics' testing policy is scientifically flawed and ethically troubling. He explains that sexual development involves many genes and hormones, and warns that the rule could misclassify athletes or create inequity.
Man or Woman? Why a Genetic Test in Sports Causes Controversy - Süddeutsche Zeitung (Germany) Sep 2025
Author: Priska Wörl - article in German
About: Examines World Athletics' new rule requiring female athletes to prove they are 'biologically female' via SRY testing at the 2025 World Championships in Tokyo. The piece highlights the scientific, ethical, and social implications of this policy, featuring historical cases such as María José Martínez Patiño, Foekje Dillema, and Caster Semenya.
How is sex determined? Scientists say it's complicated: Short Wave March 2025
Author: Hannah Chinn, Regina G. Barber, Berly McCoy, Rebecca Ramirez
About: Explains the complex biology of sex determination, showing how chromosomes, hormones, anatomy, and development interact in diverse ways. Interviewees include DSD Expert Faisal Ahmed, co-author of the DSD Consensus Chicago Statement.
Maria José Martínez-Patiño was barred after a gender test – now she is taking on the new rules at the World Championships - English translation - Aftenposten Sep 2025
About: The article tells the story of María José Martínez Patiño, a Spanish hurdler who was publicly excluded after failing a gender verification test. It discusses her fight against the rules, the impact on her career, and her stance against current policies governing female athlete eligibility.
What does science tell us about boxing’s gender row? BBC News (UK) 2024
About: Explores the complex science of sex-determination—highlighting the role of the SRY gene—and discusses how this intersects with elite sport policies such as those of World Athletics and World Boxing. The piece emphasises how human sex characteristics don’t conform neatly to binary categories, casting doubt on the idea that a single genetic test can fairly determine eligibility. Includes DSD expert Claus Gravholt (Aarhaus University, Denmark) and sport scientist Alun Williams (Manchester Metropolitan University)
Other Media
How useful are SRY gene tests for female athletes? Quarks (Germany) Sep 2025
Author: Sigrid März - article in German
About: Explores the scientific and ethical controversy around World Athletics’ SRY gene test for female athletes. Biological sex is determined by a complex interplay of genetics, hormones, and development -not by a single gene. The article critiques the policy as overly simplistic and potentially discriminatory toward intersex athletes. With interviewee Nadine Hornig, Head of the sex development group at the Institute of Human Genetics, University Medical Center Schleswig-Holstein, and Collaborative Research Centre Sexdiversity.
Gene tests in women's athletics - new rule explained BBC sport (UK) Sep 2025
About: BBC Sports Editor Dan Roan has publicly commented on the rollout of gene sex testing for female athletes. His posts report that World Athletics is “within touching distance” of introducing these tests, prompting wide debate on fairness, ethics, and implementation. Roan’s coverage is neutral and informative, highlighting the controversy without taking a personal stance.
PSI-I Podcast Episode 3: On what basis is elite sports fair? - Psychosocial Studies Intersex International (PSI -I) Sep 2025
Speakers: Peter Hegarty, Alun Williams, and Benjamin Moron-Puech
About: Discusses World Athletics’ new SRY gene testing rule and its impact on women with variations in sex characteristics. The speakers question the lack of scientific basis, highlight privacy and ethical concerns, and warn that the policy could harm the well-being of athletes and of women and children living with 46 XY,DSD, and oversimplifies the complex realities of human sex development.
Women's hour - Double jeopardy fight, Fertility rates, SRY tests, Wool sourcing - BBC Radio 4 (UK) Aug 2025
About: Interview with BBC’s Dan Roan (see below article). Covers the debate surrounding World Athletics’ SRY gene test for female athletes. Includes insights from scientists, ethicists, and athletes discussing the test’s scientific validity, ethical concerns, and its impact on intersex and DSD athletes. Also considers historical gender verification practices and alternative fairness measures.
Canadian athletes adrift after genetic test kits come up faulty; why did World Athletics require the test 45 days before Worlds? - Athletics Illustrated Magazine, Aug 2025
About: Critiques the logistical failures and confusion caused by faulty genetic test kits in Canada. Questions the timing and implementation of World Athletics’ policy, arguing it adds unnecessary stress and uncertainty for female athletes.
World Athletics introduces mandatory DNA sex testing to maintain 'integrity' - ABC Radio National (Australia) March 2025
About: Featuring endocrinologist Professor Ada Cheung, discussing World Athletics’ mandatory DNA sex testing policy. The discussion explores the science, fairness, and ethics behind the new rule, emphasizing that DNA alone cannot determine sex or athletic eligibility.
Karkazis flags gender testing dangers - Inside the games (UK / International Sports Media)- Aug 2025
About: Anthropologist and bioethicist Katrina Karkazis warns that no single gene - including SRY-; can define biological sex. She highlights risks of misclassification, privacy violations, and stigma for intersex and DSD athletes, calling for inclusive, evidence-based policy reform. The article is based on an interview in the Frankfurter Allgemeine.
