Save female sports evidence thread

[Helleofabore]

I am conscious that the Break it Down for me thread is nearly full. I am therefore hoping that this thread can be an archive thread just for the sports evidence that we can all access and refer to. Now that MNHQ has given us the option for saving threads so we can find them easily, I figure it is a good time.

Please post studies, papers, media articles that pull together references, or informative articles, tweets, videos. Just on sport, the latest policies around sport.

I don't want to be the thread police, but ask that we keep this free of discussion. Can I ask that if you want to discuss something you see here, you start a thread to do so?

Because I would like this to be just information stashed so that people can find the links easily so they also know where to start. And getting into discussion on this thread will mean it will fill up.

Thanks.

ABOUT FEMALE BRAIN STRUCTURE AND CONCUSSION

Tweet from Dr Emma Hilton

x.com/fondofbeetles/status/2046635369664319628?s=46

“If you grow male brain neurones and female brain neurones on a plate, then subject them to injury via stretching, the female neurones "break" earlier and the male neurones recover quicker, because they activate a stronger and more efficient inflammatory response.

Female brains are more fragile under injury conditions, and they don't recover as well.”

Plus an article from the Irish Times

https://www.irishtimes.com/health/your-family/2026/04/21/pink-concussion-how-womens-brain-injuries-differ-biologically-from-mens/

https://archive.is/R0wo8

in this article, US neurologist Dr Beth McQuiston states:

“When it comes to the biology of concussion, there are three main differences between men and women that we know of, she explains in a video call from her home in Chicago. “Women tend to have less muscular necks. So when an injury occurs, say whether it’s a car accident or if it’s on a pitch, there is less support here,” she says, putting hands up to either side of her neck.

Secondly, there is a difference in the microarchitecture of the brain. Women have more neurons crossing the corpus callosum – a structure in the middle of the brain that connects the right and left hemispheres – and they are thinner.

A third factor is the menstrual cycle. “Given the same woman at a different time, exact same injury, there can be a different outcome, depending on whether progesterone levels are high or low. It is worse if it is in the luteal phase [ie after ovulation, approximately days 15-28 of a 28-day cycle], when the progesterone levels are high and then all of a sudden they drop abruptly.” This is due to the effect of the trauma on the pituitary gland, right in the centre of the head.

“That is very intriguing,” says McQuiston. “We’re looking at studies right now, [asking] can someone be on a certain type of oral contraception, or can they take a certain kind of medication, to attenuate that drop if they had a concussion?”

Research indicates women have more post-concussive symptoms and usually take longer to recover. “

2019 PRESS RELEASE FROM THE IAAF

IAAF publishes briefing notes and Q&A on Female Eligibility Regulations

https://worldathletics.org/download/download?filename=fd2923ad-992f-4e43-9a70-78789d390113.pdf&urlslug=IAAF%2520Eligibility%2520Regulations%2520for%2520the%2520Female%2520Classification%2520%255BAthletes%2520with%2520Differences%2520of%2520Sex%2520Development%255D%2520in%2520force%2520as%2520from%25208%2520May%25202019

Here are some FAQs

worldathletics.org/news/press-release/questions-answers-iaaf-female-eligibility-reg

IAAF 07 MAY 2019

The following is the regulations they published at the time

1. Which athletes fall under the DSD regulations?

The DSD regulations only apply to individuals who are:

• legally female (or intersex) and
• who have one of a certain number of specified DSDs, which mean that they have:
• male chromosomes (XY) not female chromosomes (XX)
• testes not ovaries
• circulating testosterone in the male range (7.7 to 29.4 nmol/L) not the (much lower) female range (0.06 to 1.68 nmol/L); and
• the ability to make use of that testosterone circulating within their bodies (i.e., they are ‘androgen-sensitive’).

(note: the above is a good indication that the IAAF at the time fully understood that this specific group of people were male!)

2. What do such athletes have to do to be eligible to compete in the female classification?

If they are competing below international level, they do not have to do anything. They can compete without restriction.

If they are competing at international level, in one of the affected events (track races between 400m and one mile in distance), they first have to lower the level of testosterone in their blood down to below 5 nmol/L (because that is the highest level that a healthy woman with ovaries would have) for a period of six months, and maintain it below that level while they continue to compete at international level in such events.

If they want to compete at international level in other events, again they can compete without restriction, i.e., without lowering their testosterone levels.
To lower their testosterone levels in this way, affected athletes can either (a) take a daily oral contraceptive pill; or (b) take a monthly injection of a GnrH agonist; or (c) have their testes surgically removed (a ‘gonadectomy’). It is their choice whether or not to have any treatment, and (if so) which treatment to have. In particular, the IAAF does not insist on surgery. The effects of the other two treatments are reversible if and when the athlete decides to stop treatment.

Importantly, lowering testosterone in one of these ways is the recognised ‘gender-affirming’ standard of care for any individual (athlete or not) who is 46 XY but has a female gender identity.

7. Why are you targeting one athlete / How big a problem is this in the sport?

Some commentators have suggested that the regulations were (and have always been) directed at an individual athlete. That is not true. The IAAF is bound by strict confidentiality and so simply cannot – and will not – disclose the number of other athletes affected, or the identities of those athletes.

We have seen in a decade and more of research that approximately 7.1 in every 1000 elite female athletes in our sport are DSD athletes with very high testosterone levels in the male range. The majority of those athletes compete in the restricted events covered by the regulations. This frequency of DSD individuals in the elite athlete population is around 140 times higher than you will find in the general female population, and their presence on the podium is much more frequent even than this. The CAS accepted that this demonstrates, in statistical terms, that they have a significant performance advantage.

just to highlight this.

"We have seen in a decade and more of research that approximately 7.1 in every 1000 elite female athletes in our sport are DSD athletes with very high testosterone levels in the male range. The majority of those athletes compete in the restricted events covered by the regulations. This frequency of DSD individuals in the elite athlete population is around 140 times higher than you will find in the general female population, and their presence on the podium is much more frequent even than this."

https://worldathletics.org/news/press-release/questions-answers-iaaf-female-eligibility-reg

Even in 2019 the IAAF knew and still prioritised some male people over female athletes.