Caster Semenya HERMAPHRODITE?: Tests Reveal South African Sprinter Has Both Male, Female Characteristics: REPORT

New York Daily News:

Tests show that controversial runner Caster Semenya is a woman ...and a man!

The 18-year-old South African champ has no womb or ovaries and her testosterone levels are more than three times higher than those of a normal female, according to reports.

Read the whole story: New York Daily News

Comments

[wilray]

From some pictures i notice that Caster's running outfit was decidedly different from her competitors. I don't know why this is, but given all the rumor mongering you would think that she would try to minimize the difference. Of course, it may be that wearing suit that is cut more like her competitors may accentuate the differences. Actually, her suit is cut more like the suit of Usain Bolt.

http://www.examiner.com/ExaminerSlideshow.html?entryid=518988&slide=5
http://sportsblog.projo.com/bolt0820.jpg

Also, you might read this article about Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome, especially the last paragraph.
http://transwoman.tripod.com/ais.htm

[eden4barack08]

Interesting article on AIS. According to that, it would seem Semenya does not have AIS, or is a different form of it, since she doesn't seem to have developed any feminine attributes since puberty.

"Puberty
At puberty girls with AIS experience a female pubertal development because their hidden testes produce sufficient oestrogen to induce development of the breasts, hips genitalia, etc. ... The body of an AIS girl not only fails to develop masculinity at puberty, but also develops even further in a feminine direction, causing the body appearance to simulate an adult XX female.

In appearance the overall body shape typically becomes very decidedly feminine, with a classical female pattern subcutaneous fat distribution and generous breast development - large breasts with pale, under-developed, juvenile appearing nipples are one indication of AIS. "

[seattle music]

No one "accused" her of being a man.

They questioned her gender, and rightly so, as the tests prove out.

Being intersex (with, in her case, male reproductive organs inside and female organs outside) is not "male". It's not "female", either.

She is neither male nor female, biological­ly/medical­ly she's a mix. That's what intersex means.

No one is picking on her by observing and acknowledging reality.

[MelRoy]

No one is picking on her?

Sixth place finisher Elisa Cusma Piccione told Italian journalists, "For me, she's not a woman. She's a man." And fellow loser Mariya Savinova of Russia, who came in fifth, instructed journalists in Berlin to, "just look at her."

Stanislawa Walasiewicz was not stripped of her two gold medals
Heidi Krieger wasn't stripped of her two gold medals
Eva Klobukowska was not stripped of her medal
Erika Schinegger was never stripped of her medal
Seven women athletes in Atlanta proved to have AIS but were not banned from competing as women

Yet Santhi Soundarajan - who had AIS - stripped of her medal and subjected to public humiliation which led to her attempting suicide. Apparently, because a losing rival athlete questioned her sexuality.

Edinanci Silva had AIS, underwent surgery and hormone therapy and was eligible to compete - she beat her Australian competitor Natalie Jenkins at Sydney fair and square, yet Miss Jenkins constantly referred to her rival at press conferences as "he" and was never censured for it.

There seems to be a pattern here...

[emmeaki]

Exactly!

[vim876]

How would they deal with a person with complete androgen insensitivity syndrome?

[LJBarner]

I think a situation better served by political correctness, dear Huffington.
Instead of hermaphrodite, please use intersexed.
The definition of a hermaphrodite is an organism that has both male and female reproductive systems, of which Caster has not.
And the word hermaphrodite is frowned upon, to say the least, by the ISNA.

[MelRoy]

I agree with you entirely, but it's the tabloid newspapers which are using the archaic and incorrect term "hermaphrodite".

[Niasia]

This is tough, I am not well educated on this topic to give an opinion. I do know that she is human and should be treated as such. i hope that this can work out for her.

[ICorpsDoc]

Its not about punishment it is about a level playing field. And she has a decided edge when competing against the women. And she is not in the ball park nearly good enough to compete against the men.

Several years back I saw this distinction real clear.

My sons high school age State Select Soccer Team playing a friendly against the best female soccer team in the word at the time. The US Womens team as they were getting ready for the world cup.

No hard fouls. No slide tacking for the boys. A controlled game for the boys so as not to hurt any of the women right before the Cup.

Worlds best womens team=1

Boys HS age select team=6

You just cannot have them compete against each other..

[Mirabai305]

She has the exact same 'edge' as a pregnant woman. The fact of the matter is her testosterone levels are well under the high range of testosterone in pregnant women. She does not have the testosterone level of a man. Do you think that a pregnant woman should be barred from competing against non-pregnant women?

[euthman]

Irrespective of the anatomy of her external genitalia, if she has testes that produce levels of testosterone significantly greater than are normally produced by women, and she does not have ovaries, then she is physiologically male, not female. Accordingly, I think she should be considered male for purposes of athletic competition.

Just speculating here, but I wonder if she is a genetic male with 17-hydroxylase deficiency.

[ThoughtAboutIt]

I am not a doctor but, like your comment, it seems clear cut to me.

[churchhill]

Its more complex then that. Yes she has testes inside her body, and that has caused her to have significantly higher levels of testosterone. But some of the other tests that were done, resulted in being female as well.

You may want to say "o she has higher levels of testosterone, so she is a he" But that is only one of many tests that determine gender, and certainly no single test defines gender."

For example there are other women do to deformaty or because of surgical procedures, do not have a womb, or ovaries, does that mean they are no longer female?

[zoe27]

People seem to be using the fact that her testosterone levels are 3 times normal for a woman to infer a major advantage. To keep it in perspective, men have, on average, testosterone levels that are approx. 40 - 60 times the level that women do, and normal ranges are quite broad.

For a premenopausal woman, normal range is 10 - 70 ng/dL
For a man in his twenties, normal range is 270 - 1080 ng/dL

A prepubescent boy had a normal range of 1 - 619 ng/dL, so 3 times normal for a woman falls within this category.

A pregnant woman has testosterone levels 3 or 4 times the level of a healthy non-pregnant woman.

Anomalies such as this case are more complicated than just testosterone levels. For example, women, while having less testosterone, are more sensitive to it, so if this athlete is chromosomally XY, she might have the lower sensitivity to testosterone that men have, hence no advantage through higher levels. As well, testicles that have not descended by puberty are damaged by internal body heat. It may happen that they are treated as testosterone producing tumors and removed.

I don't have any idea what should be decided since the situation is more complex than a simple hormone level and ambiguous genitalia. Like many other things, gender is not necessarily black and white. There are grey areas.

[piul05]

I shall try again; it seems that my answers get stuck in Huffyan ether for no apparent reason.

What I've read (sorry, I can't remember the source now) is that men have between 500 and 1000 nanograms of testosterone per deciliter of blood, and women 50 to 100 ng/dl. This means that a woman must have five times the top of the female range to be at the bottom of the male hormonal range. So, Caster has, AT MOST, around 300 ng/dl, which is less than the minimum level for a man.

Anyway, as I posted below, I would take anything published by a R*pert M*rdoch tabloid (not an official announcement by the IAAF) with a huge pinch of salt.

[CaliGrown78]

Whatever she is she is a human being first and foremost & obviously one hell of an athlete, people always gotta try to hat on each other & try to bring people down, UNREAL!

[alsm9]

That should be "against" and "fair". I type to fast and make silly mistakes. :)

[alsm9]

My original post hasn't shown up so this makes no sense. However, I was reading an article about Caster on yahoo news and they are saying that this finding is not fact and is being disputed by IAAF? So....apparently this is just tabloid nonsense right now. However if it does turn out to be true she should not be competeing against women.

[bliss0027]

hmmm i know the whole story isn't out yet but i find it really hard to believe she didn't know herself.

A friend of mine was saying last night that he thinks the South African team knew all along about her gender ambiguity, which was the reason they had her on the womans team to begin with. She would have never gotten a period, she developed a masculine appearance and as professional athlete she would seen doctors in the past. I understand she has outer female geni talia but in many cases with hermaphrodites while it may look mostly female it usually does not look like your typical vag ina. Red Flags must have gone off somewhere.

that being said, i hope people chose to handle this in a positive way. These kinds of sexual/reproductive birth defects (and i hate to even use the word "defect") are rising steadily especially in the USA (think environmental toxins etc.) and because of the stigma and scrutiny many of these people live in shame and secrecy. It's unfortunate for her that her personal medical issue is being played out, talked about and judged by the entire world, but i do hope that it instigates some intelligent discussions on the meaning and/or importance that society places on gender and especially human rights.

[churchhill]

The proper term is not hermaphrodite, but intersex.

This is not simply a "birth defect" but also an understanding that most humans exist on a gender scale rather then specifically male or female. If most people went through the same series of gender testsing they would find some tests saying they were male, and others saying they were female. Although for more would probably would result in the gender you identify as.

But thinking being intersex is a birth defect is a bad way of thinking that caused a lot harm to intersex individuals in the past from the medical community.

They are who they are, and unless there is a medical problem, nothing about them needs to be "fixed".

[vim876]

Most sports medicine experts don't spend a lot of time on genitalia, and perhaps her doctors just thought the lack of periods was from the physical stress it takes to train as a top athlete (amenhorrea is pretty common among top runners, actually. So there is a decent chance she didn't know.

[ceeenbee]

I don't agree that her medals should be taken away from her. That said, I do believe that her testi and therefore high testosterone level should preclude her from further competition. Since the undescended testi do give her a competitive advantage and since the testi are potentially life threatening she should have them removed. She is then free to compete as a women.

[Fudgefase]

What a totally cr@ ppy position for her to be in. She would appear not to have female reproductive organs - and unless they remove her only (male0 ones, then she could develop severe medical problems.
What would that make her then?
There must be other people out there who has made this incredibly personal and dreadful choice. Someone must have written a book about their experiences. I wish they would be able to give her some advice and let her know how they overcame it.

[Isabelle17]

But if she truly is intersex, then it isn't fair for her to keep the medals - she did nothing wrong, but the ASA president just admitted to knowing she had been tested and that she had failed, so the race was not run under fair premises. It's terrible for her, but Chuene and the ASA did cheat, and the other runners shouldn't suffer because of it. But I agree that if she has surgery to comply with the IAAF's gender standards, she can race then.

[stacymc]

Sucks for her. Shes an athlete, so where does she go now?

[spiderbucket]

It's sad that sports have completely become about nothing but money.

[felisa11]

The fact is that they cannot PROVE she is a man, for which they accused her . If this were a court of law she would be NOT GUILTY, therefore she keeps her medals and is eligible to compete.

[bliss0027]

yeah...but they cannot PROVE she's a woman either

[jeburr24]

Let Semenya keep the medal, because she didn't cheat. But I think Semenya should be barred from future women's competitions now that we know she is partly male and thus has an unfair advantage over other women. I wonder if Semenya could hold her own with the men?

[vim876]

It doesn't matter, because she's not a man. We wouldn't let an intersex gymnast compete with males, because they'd have an unfair advantage. Switching isn't a solution.

[Hugatreetoday]

I hate to say it but if someone is not completely one sex or the other then they should not be allowed to participate in the games under current rules. Now if they want to change the rules to address cases such as this, so be it.

[felisa11]

They cannot prove she is a man and that was the accusation.

They have wronged this young person. She should be able to compete unless they can prove she is NOT a woman. Plenty of women get their wombs removed, does that make them a man?

[ModernTimes1]

The participation in international sports is a privilege, not a right.
Caster is not a woman for purposes of world athletic competition.

[Julia Bailey]

Yes, lets just put them all in a closet and pretend they don't exist.