Adequacy of Sex Tests on Female Olympians Is Disputed in Report by Finnish Researcher

A Finnish researcher believes that genes alone do not determine who is a woman, and he recommends that the test used to ensure that female Olympic competitors are really women be altered if it is continued.

“The procedure is not only inaccurate but also discriminatory, in that it excludes women who should be allowed to participate,” said Dr. Albert de la Chapelle in a report appearing in Friday’s Journal of the American Medical Assn.

He said the test “does not reveal . . . those who should probably be excluded,” such as women taking male hormones.

But Dr. Robert O. Voy, director of sports medicine and science for the U.S. Olympic Committee, said in Dallas: “Done in its usual form, and done very confidentially, it is probably . . . fair--as long as people understand that it isn’t the only test used.

Dr. Daniel Hanley, a retired doctor in Brunswick, Me., who was on the IOC’s medical commission when the testing was first used, said that further testing may not be worth the effort.

“They ought to forget sex screening,” Hanley said. “If some kook wants to dress like a girl and run around the track, let him. The world isn’t going to stop if he gets a medal in one race.”

The test of the chromosome structure of cheek cells indicates if a person is a woman. But in rare disorders, such as testicular feminization, in which a male’s sex organs fail to develop normally, his genetic makeup may be male, while his muscle structure and upbringing are female, said De la Chapelle.

Four factors--chromosome structure, sexual organs, characteristics such as muscle structure and psychosocial indicators such as appearance and behavior--determine if someone is a man or a woman, according to De la Chapelle.

“The fundamental failure” of the testing used is that it only deals with chromosome structure, he said.

A simple inspection of body build and appearance by an experienced observer might be the best test, he said.