Olympic gold medallist, Caster Semenya has revealed the physical and emotional trauma she experienced after she was forced to take contraceptive Pill so she could compete with other women.
The South African runner, 32, who won Olympic gold over 800 metres in 2012 and 2016, was legally identified as female at birth but has a condition which means her body naturally produces higher levels of testosterone than women without the condition.
In 2018, rules introduced by World Athletics stipulated that Semenya and other athletes with differences of sexual development (DSD) had to take hormone-suppressing medication in order to compete in distances between 400m and a mile.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4 Woman’s Hour, the decorated athlete said the Pill gave her ‘panic attacks’, caused her severe stress and made her ‘want to throw up every day’ for the duration of the time she was taking the medication – and she insisted she is ‘not a threat’ to other female athletes.
She also told presenter Emma Barnett that she doesn’t want the two children she shares with her wife Violet Raseboya to go into athletics when they are older because of the experience she has had – and will instead encourage them to take on other sports.
During her career, Semenya has had her private medical records leaked after she was required to take a test to prove she was a biological female. The results revealed she had been born without ovaries or a womb and had internal testes. Her testosterone levels were three times that of what was considered ‘normal’ for a woman at the time.
As she releases her memoir The Race to be Myself, she has reflected on the strict stipulations imposed upon her to compete, which required her to take a test to prove she was a woman, and later take steps to suppress testosterone in her body.
Semenya recalled taking the gender recognition test when she was 18 years old, shortly before winning a gold medal in the World Championships in Berlin, Germany.
‘For me, it came by surprise when I discovered that this was a gender test,’ she said. ‘I understood it to be a doping test.’
When the medic informed her that she was taking a gender test, Semenya recalled feeling like she had ‘nothing to hide’ and allowed the test to go ahead.
‘I know I am a woman,’ she said.
During her career, Semenya has had her private medical records leaked after she was required to take a test to prove she was a biological female.
The results revealed she had been born without ovaries or a womb and had internal testes. Her testosterone levels were three times that of what was considered ‘normal’ for a woman at the time.
As she releases her memoir The Race to be Myself, she reflects on the strict stipulations imposed upon her to compete, which required her to take a test to prove she was a woman, and later take steps to suppress testosterone in her body.
Semenya recalled taking the gender recognition test when she was 18 years old, shortly before winning a gold medal in the World Championships in Berlin, Germany.
‘For me, it came by surprise when I discovered that this was a gender test,’ she said. ‘I understood it to be a doping test.’
When the medic informed her that she was taking a gender test, Semenya recalled feeling like she had ‘nothing to hide’ and allowed the test to go ahead.
‘I know I am a woman,’ she said.
The test revealed Semenya’s reproductive organs were different from most females – something the athlete did not previously know. The test results were eventually leaked without her consent and made public.
She revealed she processed the information ‘years’ later, and avoided the news for several years so she could remain focused on running.
Referring to the leak, Semenya said: ‘It’s a violation but it’s something I cannot control. At the end of the day, it’s out there and it’s done me a favour because I had to learn through it, there are people that had to learn through it.
‘Now there are people who know that there are women out there with differences.’
She added: ‘Women with differences; they are not threats.’
After the results of her test revealed Semenya’s elevated testosterone levels, she came to an agreement with World Athletics (formerly the IAAF) to take medication to alter her hormones and decrease testosterone in her body.
Describing how the hormones affected her, Semenya recalled: ‘I took it out of desperation for me to get into the running space again.’
She added: ‘It made me sick. I lived under stress. Every day, you’re not happy, you’re living in the dark.
‘You have pain in your stomach, you have panic attacks, nauseous, you always want to vomit each and every day.’
Semenya described her experience as ‘hell’ and said she ended up ‘disliking herself’ and losing her sense of self.
‘You don’t sleep at night, you’re always thinking, ‘why am I doing this’?’ she said.
