A anti-doping control made by Concacaf a 2018 before a concentration of the Mexican Women’s Under-20 Team put in a pauses for two years the career of a player who was detected a higher amount of testosterone which is usually produced by women.
Weeks after the checkup he was diagnosed with a condition called Different Sexual Development (DSD) i he immediately stopped playing. He disappeared not only from the call from National selection, But also of the Women’s MX League.
Based on what marks the World Anti-Doping Code (CMA) and with the advice of the National Anti-Doping Committee (NAC), the Mexican Federation of Soccer (FMF) he asked his club for the player to undergo hormonal treatment to adjust the amount of testosterone his body produces according to established limits, treatment for which he was forced to stop his career for two years.
‘No one is ready for the unknown’
Without being responsible for her condition, the young footballer -with whom Mediotiempo spoke, but the name will not be revealed because it is confidential medical information- suffered the consequences of being part of an unknown subject, Not only for the FMF, but also for the FIFA, Organizations that so far do not have protocols for handling these cases, as noted Andrea Rodebaugh, Former Mexican footballer and member of the FIFA program for the development of women’s football.
“As far as I know the topic has not been touched on in FIFA. It’s a very new topic, we’re going to have to keep analyzing and thinking because we’re not ready, “he said in an interview with Mediotiempo.
“No one is prepared for the unknown. There are many rumors because society has an image of what a woman’s ideal is and anyone who does not comply with that image is beginning to question it.”
the World Anti-Doping Code states that testosterone levels in a woman’s body should not exceed 10 nanomoles per liter of blood (nmol / L). In this way, it is believed that the athletes bodies produce more testosterone compete in unequal circumstances.
Under this parameter, the player underwent hormonal treatment to lower her testosterone levels. The club he belongs to took care of the expenses, in addition to respecting his contract and continuing to pay him without playing. Once his testosterone levels were regulated, he returned for the tournament guardians 2020.
A treatment with side effects
these Treatments are based on hormone intakeBut they can cause side effects such as fatigue, reduced bone density and muscle mass or circulatory problems, as well as sudden changes in mood, as you suffer. Mara Stefanía Gómez, the first ‘trans’ professional footballer to play in the highest category of women’s football Argentina, Who had to undergo a hormonal procedure in order to play the Vila Sant Carles Athletic Club.
“It affects the circulatory system, it affects me emotionally and psychologically because sometimes I’m good and sometimes bad, my moods change,” Mara told Mediotiempo.
the only similar antecedent that existed in professional soccer of Mexico was in the manly with the case of Adrián Aldrete, Who in 2010 were diagnosed with abnormal testosterone levels.
However, and unlike the case of the footballer, Aldrete, who then played for Morelia monarchs, he continued his career thanks to a document confirming that his testosterone levels are high, But not within a parameter to be categorized as doping. This document has it in its possession so much Blue Cross such as the FMF.
What is Different Sexual Development?
the ‘Report on the rules of sports classification of athletes with differences in sexual development’, Written by Spanish doctors in 2019 establishes the use of the term Differences in Sexual Development He DSD.
The best known case worldwide is that of the South African athlete, Caster Semenya. the Berlin World Athletics Championships 2009 it was the setting in which the gender of the runner was questioned. From that moment on, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) undertake research on the sex of Semenya.
While the results of those medical tests were never released, the media leaked information about the high levels of testosterone that the double Olympic gold medalist and three-time world champion in 800 meters had thrown.
That was how the IAAF and Semenya enlisted in a conflict that reached as far as the Court of Arbitration for Sport (TAS for its acronym in French). The IAAF requested sex tests on the athleteIn addition to requesting a reduction in their testosterone levels, Semenya challenged every mistake the organization made: “It’s not fair to be asked to change, it’s not fair for people to wonder who I am”, He stated at the time.
A genetic condition that mistakenly goes through doping
the doctor José Alonso Fernández-Guasti, researcher of the Department of Pharmacobiology of the Center for Research and Advanced Studies (Cinvestav), Explained that this condition is caused by a deficiency in the production of hormones or steroids produced by the adrenal gland. This causes the pituitary gland to produce more hormones of another type, which stimulate the secretion of androgens like the testosterone.
“They may have completely female sexual organs and still have very high androgen levels.“And that’s probably why she was positive (the MX Women’s League player) because, as we know, one of the forms of doping is androgens,” said Fernández-Guasti.
One of the most common forms of doping committed by athletes who break the rules is through the deliberate intake of androgens, as these help increase muscle mass and improve performance.
Since 1967, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Medical Commission integrated them into the list of banned substances. Two of the most famous doping cases in Olympism were for the detection of these substances: that of Ben Johnson a summer of 1988 i Marion Jones a Sydney 2000.
The IOC labels androgens as steroids or anabolic agents; that is, synthetic or artificial versions of testosterone, including nandrolone, methenolone, oxandrolone, testosterone, fluoxymesterone, stenazolol, salbutamol, terbutaline, salmeterol, phenoterol, and clenbuterol.
Maribel Domínguez was assaulted by her physique
The former footballer and today coach of the Mexican Selection Sub 20, Maribel Domínguez, he came to suffer verbal aggression for his appearance during its passage through the Selection of the Federal District, As reported in 2005 in an interview with AFP Agency, although the then front she was never forced to stop playing so that he had higher-than-established testosterone levels.
“I was pressured and raped because they wanted to see me naked to check that I was a woman”, Platicó Domínguez more than 15 years ago, when she was then a player in the women’s team of the Barcelona.
Today the footballer who was disqualified for two years in the MX Women’s League is just trying to regain the path that was cut 33 months ago, without having been responsible for her condition, for which there is not even a protocol regulated in FMF or FIFA, the omissions lead to cases such as the one mentioned, despite being a young woman’s career was on the rise.
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