Mboma doing well on hormone therapy medicine
Since starting medication to lower her testosterone levels, Namibia’s Olympic 200m silver medalist Christine Mboma has not experienced any negative effects on her body.
“So far, she’s been doing well and we haven’t observed any negative reactions. We plan to wait for the six-month period to end before she returns to the tracks to run,” said her coach Henk Botha.
Mboma and several other athletes, including her former running mate Beatrice Masilingi, fell victim to the new rule announced by World Athletics (WA) in March this year, that athletes with Differences in Sexual Development (DSD) will be ineligible to compete in any international competition, unless they take hormone therapy to reduce their “higher than average” levels of testosterone. This medication should be taken for six months before they can return to competitive running.
WA first put limitations on Mboma in 2021 when she set an unratified U/20 world record and African senior record in the 400m, making her the seventh fastest women of all time in that event.
Following her win, she was forced to undergo “medical assessments” and Mboma, who was 18 at the time, was found to produce enough natural testosterone to violate WA’s rules. She was given an ultimatum—the WA barred her from competing in events between 400m and one mile unless she agreed to take drugs to lower her natural testosterone. Either that or choose a distance where the rule didn’t apply, like the 200m, which is what Mboma opted to do.
She was doing so well in the new distance until the new rule was announced in March this year.
Thus, in an effort to ensure that Mboma returns to the track after the latest ruling, the athlete agreed to take the medication. The other option for her would be to stop competing altogether.
Botha said so far, Mboma is doing well and training regularly.
Asked if Masilingi has also started taking the medication to lower her level of testosterone, her management at Newton Sports Agency said that it’s a sensitive matter and they are still in consultations with her as to the best way forward in the coming months.
South Africa’s double 800m Olympic and world champion Caster Semenya and Burundi’s Francine Niyonsaba, who finished runner-up to Semenya in the 800m race at the 2016 Olympics, are also impacted by the new rule.
Earlier in her career, Semenya took testosterone-lowering drugs at great cost to her physical and mental well-being and revealed details of her anguish as she has been fighting for her right to compete through the courts.
“It [the drugs] made me sick, made me gain weight, panic attacks, I don’t know if I was going to have a heart attack,” she said at the time. “It’s like stabbing yourself with a knife every day. But I had no choice.”
She subsequently refused to continue taking the hormone suppressing drugs and continue to fight in the courts for her right to compete — without success.
- mkambukwe@nepc.com.na