The overlooked consequence of WTA's new sex testing policy

(Getty/David Ramos)

The WTA has introduced mandatory genetic testing for every player seeking to compete on the women's professional tour.

The policy has largely been discussed through the lens of transgender participation in sport,

But the athletes most likely to receive an unexpected result may not be transgender women.

They may be women who have always lived and competed as women, but unknowingly have an intersex variation.

Under the new policy, players must complete a one-off test for the SRY gene, usually through a cheek swab or blood sample.

The SRY gene is normally found on the Y chromosome and plays a central role in male sex development. A positive result triggers further medical assessment before a player's eligibility is determined.

Mixed reaction from tennis

The WTA's decision follows similar moves by other major sporting organisations.

World Athletics introduced a one-off SRY test for athletes competing in its female category last year, while the International Olympic Committee adopted the same initial screening approach for female Olympic events in March.

Former world No.1 Martina Navratilova welcomed the WTA's announcement, describing it as a "step in the right direction".

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However, former Australian doubles world No.1 Rennae Stubbs questioned what problem the policy was intended to address.

"There aren't any," Stubbs said of transgender women competing on the professional tour during The Rennae Stubbs Tennis Podcast. "There are currently no known transgender women competing in professional tennis."

Stubbs also rejected the suggestion that men would transition simply to gain an advantage in women's sport.

"No man is deciding at 18 or 20 years of age, 'You know what? I think I can win Wimbledon if I just become a woman, I'm going to start taking oestrogen and do all these things to get myself a Wimbledon title'," she said."It just doesn't happen."

She also revealed she underwent sex verification before representing Australia at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

"We actually got given a card to basically say, 'Oh yeah, you're a woman, you have the genes of a female, therefore you can participate'," Stubbs said.

"I thought it was such an invasion of my own privacy back then.

"Why the WTA needs to venture into this category of controversy is just bizarre to me."

What does intersex mean?

Much of the response to the WTA announcement has treated the test as primarily an issue involving transgender athletes.

But transgender and intersex are not the same thing.

Transgender describes someone whose gender differs from the sex they were assigned at birth.

Intersex is an umbrella term for people born with sex characteristics that do not fit typical medical definitions of male or female bodies.

Those variations can involve a person's chromosomes, hormones, reproductive organs or anatomy.

Some intersex variations are identified at birth or during puberty. Others remain undiscovered until fertility investigations, unrelated medical care or, potentially, genetic testing required by sport.

Under the WTA policy, that means a player could have been born female, raised as a girl and competed her entire career as a woman without knowing she carries the SRY gene or another variation in her sex characteristics.

A positive SRY result does not itself explain the way an athlete's body has developed or establish that she has gained an athletic advantage.

It instead begins a much more complicated medical and eligibility process.

Sport has done this before

Mandatory sex verification is not new.

International sporting bodies introduced widespread testing of women during the 1960s, initially through physical examinations and later through chromosome screening. The testing was presented as a way to stop men from entering women's competition.

History shows something quite different happened.

Medical reviews found that rather than identifying men masquerading as women, the programmes instead identified women with previously unknown variations in their sex characteristics, while also producing false positives and disputed findings that fuelled growing scientific criticism.

For many athletes, the consequences were profound. Some had careers disrupted or ended, while many had deeply private medical information exposed to public scrutiny.

Spanish hurdler María José Martínez-Patiño was ruled ineligible after chromosome testing identified a Y chromosome in the 1980s. She later revealed she had androgen insensitivity syndrome, meaning her body could not respond typically to the hormones associated with male development.

Martínez-Patiño successfully challenged the decision and returned to competition, but only after losing years of her career and having deeply private medical information made public.

The experiences of athletes such as Martínez-Patiño helped prompt scientists, doctors and sporting officials to question whether chromosome screening was scientifically justified or ethically appropriate.

The International Olympic Committee abandoned universal chromosome screening in 1999 following sustained criticism from researchers, clinicians and athletes.

Now, more than 25 years later, broad genetic screening is returning to elite women's sport.

Organisations warn of consequences

Australian organisation InterAction for Health and Human Rights has warned that similar regulations have already caused significant harm.

"Public scrutiny and public humiliation have contributed to the severe impacts felt by women athletes found to have an innate variation of sex characteristics in the course of sex testing for competitive sport," the organisation has said.

Associate Professor Morgan Carpenter from InterAction described mandatory genetic testing as "coercive" and said it "stigmatises an already stigmatised population of women with intersex variations registered female at birth".

The human cost of testing

The WTA says testing will be conducted with confidentiality and data privacy safeguards, alongside a player engagement program.

"The WTA recognises that this is a sensitive and complex issue and is committed to treating all players with dignity and implementing the policy in a respectful and thoughtful way," a spokesperson said.

But history shows that an unexpected test result can raise questions extending far beyond eligibility to play tennis.

An unexpected result may force an athlete to confront questions about her chromosomes, hormones, reproductive development or fertility while navigating doctors, sporting officials, coaches, lawyers and sponsors. All while being forced out of the game temporarily or permanently and with potential public scrutiny.

Maddie Moran, a representative of US organisation interACT Advocates for Intersex Youth, told The First Serve that discovering an intersex variation was already a deeply personal experience.

"People often work through shame, fear, and grappling with identity," Moran said.

"When a woman discovers she is intersex on a global stage—at the same moment she may be banned from the competition she’s dedicated her life to—that is nothing short of traumatic."

Moran said mandatory testing also raised serious concerns about medical privacy.

"Sex testing is a deep invasion of medical privacy, forcing women to surrender their medical and genetic information to be told if they are 'women enough' to compete," they said.

The public nature of professional sport adds another risk.

Even where a governing body promises confidentiality, an unexplained absence from tournaments or a prolonged eligibility process could lead to speculation about a player's body and identity.

Moran said receiving such information through a sporting eligibility process was inherently stigmatising.

"No amount of counselling can properly reassure a traumatised intersex woman that her variation doesn't make her less of a woman when a sports governing body is claiming the opposite."

Is tennis ready for the consequences?

The WTA says its policy is designed to maintain fair competition and equal opportunities in women's professional tennis.

Protecting women's sport is an important responsibility, and disagreement over who should be eligible for its female category will continue.

Fairness cannot be measured only by who steps onto the court. It must also include how athletes are treated when mandatory testing reveals deeply personal information they never expected to receive.

History shows that broad sex screening has primarily identified women with innate variations in their sex characteristics, making an unexpected result a foreseeable consequence.

Moran said the impact may also extend well beyond elite sport, adding: "Policies like this send a troubling message to young girls with variations in their sex traits that they don’t belong in sports.

"There is a looming fear that their dreams might be cut short simply because of their bodies."

Supporters may see the policy as a safeguard against a future problem.

But in creating that safeguard, the WTA may also be reviving a problem that sports has faced before and not always handled well.

The real test may not be whether the policy protects the women's category, but whether tennis is prepared to support the women whose lives could be changed by taking it.

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