The Hindu : Sport : SAI governing body discusses gender verification issue

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Saturday, Aug 11, 2007
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SAI governing body discusses gender verification issue

Special Correspondent

GENERAL / Paper prepared by doctors presented at the meeting

NEW DELHI: The governing body of the Sports Authority of India (SAI) which met here last Tuesday discussed the gender verification issue and came to the conclusion that Dope Control Officers (DCOs) and sampling officers needed to be more careful in future and should report back to the authorities about any doubt that could arise regarding the sex of an athlete.

“The sampling officers have to make sure that there is no room for doubt," said a SAI official on Thursday. “Doubts about gender could also be reported during routine medical examination and then we can take follow-up measures,” he added. The meeting which was initially convened in May, but had to be postponed, was specifically called to discuss the subject of gender verification.

Eventually at Tuesday’s meeting, chaired by Union Sports Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar, a few other topics were also taken up.

Ostensibly, the subject of gender verification was brought in for discussion in the wake of Tamil Nadu athlete S. Santhi’s disqualification in the Asian Games in Doha last year.

Apart from a paper prepared by Dr. P.S.M. Chandran, Director, Sports Medicine, SAI, a presentation was also made by Dr. I.C. Verma, Senior Consultant, Medical Genetics, Ganga Ram Hospital, at the meeting, detailing the situations where gender ambiguity could result and the process by which it could be verified.

Recommendations

Dr. Chandran’s paper made several recommendations to tackle the issue. Among them were, giving emphasis on gender aspects during medical examination in a subtle but effective way, vigilance during doping control, active role of medical commissions of Indian Olympic Association (IOA) and National Sports Federations (NSFs) and adherence to International Olympic Committee (IOC) guidelines on gender ambiguity cases.

Dr. Verma suggested that initial sex determination could be done through the faster Fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) technique by which the X, Y chromosomes could be verified. It could be followed up by more detailed analysis.

Any attempt to get an additional sample during dope control for the purpose of FISH test will, however, become unethical and will go against the rules of the international bodies. Dope control samples cannot be used for any other purpose though with the consent of the athletes concerned they could be used for research purposes.

Problems

The problem that SAI faces on the issue relates to the IOC stand since 1999 that there cannot be an across-the-board gender verification, but it could be taken up on a protest or a report by a medical delegate or a doping control official.

An expert panel comprising several specialists will then have to be set up to go into the issue before an athlete is declared as ineligible to compete as a female.

Awareness needed

Dr. Chandran has suggested that female managers and coaches should be made aware of gender issues in sports and should be told to keep a vigil on the menstrual cycle of athletes and report to the doctor in charge about cessation of menstruation.

He has pointed out that menstrual cessation could be because of excessive training for long periods, gender ambiguity or malnutrition leading to severe anaemia.

The ultimate responsibility, Dr. Chandran noted, would be that of the IOA Medical Commission, which, according to him needed to monitor that directions given by it were implemented before the teams were recommended for clearance.

At present SAI-delegated DCOs and sampling officers manage the majority of dope controls in the country though a federation like the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) also carries out controls through its DCOs and sampling officers.

SAI also has the responsibility of putting the athletes through a “thorough medical examination” when they enter coaching camps.

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