Papers relating to the International Athletic Foundation Workshop on Approved Methods of Femininity Verification, Monte Carlo, Monaco, 10-11 November 1990

Includes arrangements, including programme and abstracts, proposals and recommendations, and correspondence between Ferguson-Smith, Professor Arne Ljungqvist (who was the Workshop Chairman), Professor Myron Genel, Dr Elizabeth A Ferris, Dr Joe Leigh Simpson, Prof Albert de la Chapelle, and Dr Frank Newton on developments in the campaign to replace the current gender verification tests.

Ferguson-Smith presented his and Dr Elizabeth A Ferris's paper 'Gender verification in sport - the need for change?'. The Workshop recommended that femininity verification testing be abandoned and replaced by a general health check of all athletes, supplemented by random health tests. The recommendations were adopted by the IAAF Council in January 1991 and then put to the IOC Medical Committee. This committee adopted some but not all the recommendations, and their proposals were then put to the IOC Executive. The IOC then established a Working Group to consider the issue and report back for the 1992 Olympic Games. However, the IOC instead of following the IAAF adopted a new method of Y-chromosome determination by the PCR (polymerase chain reaction) method. This was felt by some to be a worse solution than continuing to use the buccal smear test. Arising from the meeting and the IOC response, the IAAF itself established a Working Group on Gender Verification, comprising some of those who had attended the workshop.