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Loading ...Male or Female? Gender tests are not always easy
08.20.2009 11:25am EDT
(London) South African runner Caster Semenya has been ordered to undergo a gender verification test, to prove she rightfully won the gold medal in the women’s 800 meters at the world championships in Berlin on Wednesday.
Proving one’s gender isn’t always so easy. Aside from the obvious physical signs, chromosomes usually determine whether a person is male or female. Males are born with XY chromosomes while females have two X chromosomes.About 1 percent of people are born with some kind of sexual ambiguity, sometimes referred to as intersexuality. These people may have the physical characteristics of both genders, a chromosomal disorder, or simply have ambiguous features. People who have both male and female organs are hermaphrodites.
Until 1999, the International Olympic Committee analyzed chromosomes from saliva samples to confirm the gender of female competitors and prevent men from masquerading as women. Other sports organizations have called the tests unreliable. The tests were scrapped before the 2000 Sydney Games.
The most common cause of sexual ambiguity is congenital adrenal hyperplasia, an endocrine disorder where the adrenal glands produce abnormally high levels of hormones.
In women, this means a masculine appearance. They may have female sexual organs, but the ovaries may be unable to produce estrogen, preventing the growth of breasts or pubic hair.
There are also several rare chromosomal disorders where women may have some male characteristics. Women with Turner syndrome, which affects about 1 in 2,000 babies, typically have broad chests and very small breasts. Their ovaries do not develop normally and they cannot ovulate.
About 1 in 1,000 women are also born with three X chromosomes. They tend to be exceptionally tall, with long legs and slender torsos. They usually have female sexual organs and are fertile.
A handful of athletes have typically dropped out or been thrown out of the Olympics for failing gender tests over the years. But no evidence supports the idea that such competitors have an unfair athletic advantage.
Her odd last name could be the tell! Kidding. Seriously, what’s between someone’s legs is no one’s business save for the person that is going to be involved with that area between the legs. Why wouldn’t they just settle this privately? Why make an issue out of it so largely? Someone’s genitalia is not my business.
She appears to be very masculine,she could easily make the transition from female to male if thats what she wanted.I am curious on what the gender tests will unravel.She has no bust,but doesn’t appear to have anything male to show in her tight running suit.
The often cited number of 1% is questionable regarding intersexual people. Many people feel this number is conservative because of the relative problem in tracking, and historical lack of interest in tracking, such people.
I recently (sometime last year) read a book arguing that there were at least seven ways to physically sex a human and that the methods were often prone to disagreement (for instance a testosterone insensitive person might be physically indistinguishable from other women by most tests but genetically male).
And while people seem comfortable assuming that men can always beat women in physical competitions, public information on intersexed athletes does not appear to bear out the idea that these people have some sort of undue advantage.
Of course, historically there have been a few cases of men choosing (or being ordered) to masquerade as women in order to compete. I guess as long as we’re separating the sexes for competitions attempts to detect these people are reasonable.
How exactly does one prove their gender?
http://snurl.com/qlqkq
It’s easy to prove your gender. Just say what YOU ARE.