Contests in the animal world to determine social status almost exclusively 
involve males, which points out that androgens may be indispensable in the 
development of competitive instincts. In animal studies, it has been shown that 
prenatal exposure to androgens may produce permanent changes toward more 
aggressive behavior in adulthood. Thus, there is a strong suspicion that women 
involved in competitive activities, such as sports, may have been exposed to 
high androgen levels in utero. There is strong evidence that the ratio between 
the second to fourth digits ratio (2D:4D ratio) correlates negatively with 
intrauterine androgen concentrations and could potentially be used as a marker 
for prenatal androgen exposure. Therefore, the purpose of our study was to test 
the hypothesis that women engaged in sports have lower 2D:4D ratio-a marker of 
high prenatal androgen exposure. We measured the 2D:4D ratios in elite and 
non-elite female athletes and compared them with female individuals not engaged 
in any sport activities. Our results showed that elite female athletes have 
significantly lower left hand 2D:4D ratios compared to the control group (P < 
0.05). Therefore, we can speculate that low 2D:4D ratio may be a positive 
correlate of sports potential in females.