Before I go into this story, can you really make up the first and the last names, unbelievable!? Some doctors speculate that Caster Semenya is not a hermaphrodite but likely has a AIS or Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome.
In other words Caster Semenya is genetic male with XY chrmozomes but has external female genitalia. Dr. Mark Porter explains in the Times:
“Gender should be determined at the point of fertilisation. All ova carry an X chromosome, while only half of male sperm carry an X, the rest carrying a Y chromosome. If an X-carrying sperm reaches the ovum first, the resulting child will be XX and female. If a Y chromosome wins the race, the child will be XY and a boy. But it is not that simple.
The default gender for all developing babies is female and the Y chromosome alters this by increasing production of male hormones (androgens), which masculinise the child — the ovaries migrate through the abdominal wall to become the testes, the labia fuse to form the scrotum, the clitoris grows to become the penis and the child becomes a boy. But what if things don’t go to plan?
Several medical conditions can blur the boundaries between male and female, but perhaps the most graphic example is Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome (AIS), where the embryo carries male chromosomes (XY) but develops into a child that is outwardly female.
It all starts off well. The Y chromosome turns the default female ovaries into androgen-producing testes, but the rest of the embryonic tissues don’t respond to the hormones and continue along the female path. The result is often an outwardly female baby but with male chromosomes and internal testes instead of ovaries.
She — for that is how the child is perceived and brought up — will not start to stand out until puberty. Although she looks like a girl in all ways (including breasts), she is a male internally, so “she” has testes instead of ovaries, no womb and is missing the upper two thirds of the vagina. So she will have no periods, can never conceive and may have difficulty with sexual intercourse.”
Now really interesting fact is that androgynous women who were genetic males, presumably the case of Caster Semenya, cleared to compete with women in the Olympics.
The Since of Sports blog published the diagrams:
“The diagram [above] summarizes the results from the Olympic Games from 1972 up to 1996, before the IOC stoppped genetic screening of athletes. What you are seeing is the number of female athletes who “failed” the genetic test which looks for the presence of a gene (called SRY) that is normally found on the Y-chromosome (in other words, these are women with a Y-chromosome). Of particular interest is the 1996 Olympics, where 8 women were identified as “genetic males”, but all 8 were allowed to compete. These 8 would have presented with the same results as Caster Semenya supposedly has – no uterus, no ovaries, and (possibly) internal testes.”
They got some balls in Atlanta and Albertville. If you are a woman athlete how does it make you feel to compete against a man with a vagina?
Further Reading:
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