Hurdling over sex? Sport, science, and equity.

Between 1968 and 1999, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) required all female athletes to undergo genetic testing as part of its sex verification policy, under the assumption that it needed to prevent men from impersonating women and competing in female-only events. After critics convinced officials that genetic testing was scientifically and ethically flawed for this purpose, the IOC replaced the policy in 1999 with a system allowing for medical evaluations of an athlete's sex only in cases of "reasonable suspicion," but this system also created injustice for athletes and stoked international controversies. In 2011, the IOC adopted a new policy on female hyperandrogenism, which established an upper hormonal limit for athletes eligible to compete in women's sporting events. This new policy, however, still leaves important medical and ethical issues unaddressed. We review the history of sex verification policies and make specific recommendations on ways to improve justice for athletes within the bounds of the current hyperandrogenism policy, including suggestions to clarify the purpose of the policy, to ensure privacy and confidentiality, to gain informed consent, to promote psychological health, and to deploy equitable administration and eligibility standards for male and female athletes.

A fine balance: Margaret Bell--physician and physical educator.

Margaret Bell's life illustrates the limited opportunities for women in higher education in addition to the restrictions they faced when attempting to control their narrow sphere of professional influence. Bell's career is also an outstanding exemplar of connections physical education had with health and medicine in its early years and the shift that occurred by the mid 20th century that made physical education an increasingly separate, specialized field. Her service ethic, interest in research on menstruation and physical activity, and work as a university health service physician provides an interesting illustration of the balancing act that women in physical education at the university level were expected to live in the middle decades of the 20th century.