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Caster Semenya celebrates taking silver at the IAAF World Championships in 2011.
(CNN) Middledistance runner Caster Semenya carried the SouthAfrican flag last month in opening ceremonies for the 2012 OlympicGames in London.
That was quite a change for the powerhouse runner, who threeyears ago was scrutinized for issues other than her athleticperformance before being cleared to compete.
Semenya gained attention in 2009 before the World Championshipsin Berlin not for her athletic prowess, but because somequestioned the then18yearold's gender.
Her masculine appearance had raised concerns and complaints tothe International Association of Athletics Federations, the governingbody for all international athletic competitions outside the Olympics.
Before the World Championships began, the IAAF confirmedSemenya was being tested for gender verification.
The concept of gender testing for athletes is not new. Variousmethods have been used to assure that men do not compete aswomen, which would give them an unfair athletic advantage.
While both men and women produce testosterone in their bodies, inmen it produces more muscle, adding to athletic prowess. Womenuse testosterone to produce estrogen, the female hormone.
This year, the London Olympic Committee instituted a new testingpolicy that measures testosterone levels of female athletes, ratherthan DNA. The testing is performed only if questions are raisedabout a female athlete's performance, and must be requested by a
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Expert: Gender testing 'imperfect' forfemale athletesBy Ann J. Curley, CNNAugust 8, 2012 Updated 1304 GMT (2104 HKT)
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STORY HIGHLIGHTS
South Africa's Caster Semenyaunderwent gender testing in2009
Various methods have beenused to test athletes' gender
The London Olympic Committeehas instituted a new testingpolicy
"There's no simple test todetermine gender," expert says
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21/5/2014 Expert: Gender testing 'imperfect' for female athletes - CNN.com
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chief medical officer of a national Olympic committee or a memberof the International Olympic Committee's medical commission.
While Semenya won the gold medal in the women's 800meter in2009, the win was overshadowed by the gender questions, and hercompetitors complained she should not have been allowed tocompete.
On September 11, 2009, Australia's Daily Telegraph reportedinformation from "a source closely involved with the Semenyaexaminations IAAF testing," which revealed that she had both maleand female sexual characteristics.
Semenya had no womb or ovaries, according to the report, and hadundescended testes, causing her to have triple the levels oftestosterone of other female athletes.
Indian athlete under pressure to prove her gender after accusations
While the politically incorrect term for people who possess bothmale and female sexual characteristics is hermaphrodite, theproper term is "intersex."
The IAAF advised Semenya to get surgery because of the potentialhealth issues caused by her condition. No public information wasprovided about her treatment.
In July 2010, the IAAF cleared Semenya to compete. She tooksecond place in her Olympic debut Wednesday in the 800meterheats.
Commentary: My life as a 'mighty hermaphrodite'
Gender testing has been the subject of debate, and different testingmethods hair patterns, chromosome testing, individual genetesting have been used, but no method is perfect.
"There's no simple test to determine gender, so what we're left withis an imperfect system," says Dr. Eric Vilain, a UCLA medicalgeneticist who served as a medical adviser to the IOC on its newpolicy for testing female athletes for "hyperandrogenism" meaning producing too many male hormones.
Critics of the female "hyperandrogenism" testing include professorsRebecca JordanYoung and Katrina Karkazis of Barnard Collegeand Stanford University, respectively.
The two say the "new sex testing policy threatens to ban womenwhose bodies produce high levels of testosterone."
They argue in an editorial published in the Guardian that "faultylogic ... links two common but inaccurate assertions abouttestosterone."
"The first is that male and female elite athletes have clear anddistinct testosterone levels. ... The IOC then projects this supposedgap onto differences in male and female athletic performance,claiming they 'differ mainly due to the fact that men producesignificantly more androgenic hormones than women.'"
Vilain disagrees, saying that "there's a huge no man's land"between male and female testosterone levels.
He also suggests "there could be no testing, which has beenargued," by JordanYoung and Karkazis, "but the vast majority offemale athletes I have spoken with believe there should be somesort of testing" when questions are raised about female athletes.
Transsexual athletes treated unfairly
The IOC regulations state that "the performance of male andfemale athletes may differ mainly due to the fact that men producesignificantly more androgenic hormones than women and,therefore, are under stronger influence of such hormones."
Women who are found to have abnormally high levels of androgens
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may have an unfair advantage, according to the regulations.
The IOC also notes, "Nothing in these regulations is intended tomake any determination of sex. Instead these regulations aredesigned to identify circumstances in which a particular athlete willnot be eligible (by reason of hormonal characteristics) to participatein the 2012 Olympic Games" in the female category.
Vilain says he believes it would be "extraordinarily difficult" forwomen to reach the male range threshold for testosterone, which isnot spelled out by the IOC because of differing lab testing methods.
He says that for the small number of female athletes who learn theyhave high levels of testosterone, treating the condition, whether it iscaused by a disorder of sex development or an adrenalmalfunction, will benefit their health.
India athlete makes plea for Semenya
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IsmanieG • 2 years ago
Exceptional female athlete > must be gender testedExceptional male athlete > celebrated...Just an observation...
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IsmanieG • 2 years ago IsmanieG
Oh, yes, there is a big difference!! It's not that simple... Take a biology or
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genetics course and you will learn this.
There’s your genotype, what your genetics say you’re supposed to be. Yourphenotype, which is what you actually appear to be. And then there’s yourgender, which is what society says you are or should be, and is not alwaysbased on the physical...
If the male chromosome, the Y chromosome, is faulty or it is not properlyexpressed during embryogenesis, then a child will be born with a vagina orambiguous genitalia (but probably a vagina).
And that child will probably be raised as a female. So her genes will sayshe’s male, but her apparent vagina will tell you that she’s physically afemale. And her family and the rest of the world will say she’s a female anddress and treat her as they fell is appropriate for a female.
And most people won’t know she’s genetically male until she competes inthe Olympics and wins a lot or puberty… most figure it out at puberty.
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Ryan Texan • 2 years ago IsmanieG
She has testicles. Dropped or undropped, it makes her male for purposes ofsports, as they are producing male levels of testosterone in her.There is no difference between gender and sex. Some people have mentalproblems and get confused, but that has nothing to do with their physicalbody it's simply a mental problem. Only in extreme cases is there any grayarea. We are talking about the real differences that the hormones produce inathletic ability. We divide sports into male/female for good reasons. Ifsomeone has the benefits of the male hormone levels, then they shouldcompete against people with similar levels.
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Ryan Texan • 2 years ago IsmanieG
Easiest solution test the women for testosterone, if they come back toohigh declare it is due to them using PEDs. End of story. We wouldn't allow men with high levels, and would declare them cheaters.Same would be true with the women. After all, does it really matter if you injected yourself with hormones to win orif you naturally have those same high levels? End result is the same, and ifwe can set the level for doping, then we can set that same level for everyoneof that sex.
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nullcodes • 2 years ago IsmanieG
Ok get rid of gender based sports gender is a subjective social constructanyway. It should be people with natural testosterone levels above a certainvalue compete in one category, and people with natural testosterone below acertain value compete in the low testosterone category. Problem solved.
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Mansgame • 2 years ago IsmanieG
I'm ok with that. The only other way to make sure nobody is cheating is tojust have a unisex race where the fastest wins regardless of gender. Do youlike that instead?
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IsmanieG • 2 years ago Mansgame
No, sex differences make a difference and men usually have moremuscle in ways that give them an advantage. But a woman who hasalways been a woman as far as she has known shouldn't be treatedas a cheater.
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ristcanyon • 2 years ago IsmanieG
IsmanieG: And she and others with a similar condition may have thosesame "biological differences" you refer to, which is not their fault. Who shouldthey compete against? You perhaps?
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IsmanieG • 2 years ago ristcanyon
Nice way to turn an intelligent conversation around to nonsense...
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Larvae • 2 years ago
The author of this has no idea of the difference between sex and gender. Gender isa social construct and this athlete identifies as female, so her gender is female. Sexis a biological trait relating to one's chromosomal complement and primary sexcharacteristics (testes, ovaries). She is likely genetically male, as she has testesinstead of ovaries. If they were to look at her chromosomes, they'd likely find her tobe XY (male) rather than XX (female). My guess is that something went haywire inthe gene that codes for androgen receptors. Therefore, she lacks female primarysex organs and the article hints at ambiguous genitalia. Some of her cells havefunctioning androgen receptors and others have nonfunctioning or partiallyfunctioning. Of course in the wacky world of genetics, she may have a extra X or Ychromosomes, although these usually come with developmental disabilities andobvious physical deformities. Or she could be a chimera, the mixture of twoseparate genomes, one being male the other female.
Science is fun.
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IsmanieG • 2 years ago Larvae
genotype vs. phenotype + gender politics = hot mess, brother
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cariocarules • 2 years ago Larvae
According to early articles, her parents have been quoted as stating she wasborn with a normal vagina...I have never read anywhere that she hadambiguous genitalia so that is supposition on your part. Clearly there wasnothing in her genital appearance to alarm her or doctors during heradolescents and infancy that she was anything other than female. After allshe was a world class athlete who must have been seeing doctors. My exwife was a runner who developed amenorrhea for over 2 years which isnormal for many athletic women who lack body fat.
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ReadsBooks • 2 years ago Larvae
She is probably XXY, it happens...
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patregan • 2 years ago
The thing to remember from this discussion: please treat intersexed people withrespect.
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Guest • 2 years ago patregan
Absolutely, but don't let someone with testes compete against someone withovaries. It simply isn't fair.
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Antar Rashiq Keith • 2 years ago
IsmanieG, I like your posts. You seem extremely bright. You're right, gender is notthe same as sex. You even explain itit is a social construct.
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IsmanieG • 2 years ago Antar Rashiq Keith
Thank you... I'm not even a part of the LGBT community, lol... I guess Iclassify as an ally, though... but I have a lot of knowledge on issues likethese and from my social justice work in college, so i want to educate wherepossible.
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cariocarules • 2 years ago Antar Rashiq Keith
I agree fully Ismanie. It's nice to see a comments board where reasonablepeople discuss topics in an informed, centrist way. Too often these turn intoforums where the dark side of humanity is exposed.
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RaShonda Harris • 2 years ago
She was born a hermaphrodite, having both male and female parts.. its not her faultthat she was born with no overies. The whole concept of cheating is when a personknowingly changes their sex or disguises it to compete, i dont think that applies toher, again she cant help the way she was born.
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shesays • 2 years ago RaShonda Harris
Agreed. If her natural biological condition happens to give her a physicaladvantage, I fail to see how that is any different than a tall person having anadvantage at basketball. Sucks for the women competing against her, butthat's how it goes. If she was born with ambiguous genitalia, and has alwaysidentified as female, then she's female.
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Chiefpr • 2 years ago
More than likely female on the outside while male on the inside pumping out all thattestosterone.Not her fault, but hardly fair in competition. The body screams male.
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sewcalm • 2 years ago
No one seems to have a similar reaction to hearing the many physical differencesassociated with Michael phelps.
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DreyStaxx • 2 years ago
If he/she doesn't have a uterus and/or ovaries he/she should not be allowed tocompete as a woman. if you have testicles you are a man. These people aremaking it much more complicated than it needs to be.
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IsmanieG • 2 years ago DreyStaxx
Biology is not so cut and dry. But it's not like she would have known that shewas intersexed if it wasn't for this invasive testing... she was born, wasraised, socialized and trained as a female. She prob has genitalia similar tothat of a biological woman, even if she's lacking the uterus and ovaries.
If she was born a male, was trained as a male and then decided to befemale, it would be another issue entirely, but as far as she has ever known,she is female.
So as it was not her choosing, she wasn't cheating or using an unfairadvantage... She was just being herself. She should not be penalized,ostracized or treated differently for it! She's just different in a way thathappened naturally...
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cariocarules • 2 years ago DreyStaxx
Drey I wish I lived in your world where everything was so clearly defined.Semanya reportedly was born with a vagina and never knew she had testes.Some develop enlarged clitorises that appear to be penises. In your worldthat would make them men. It's unfortunate that a woman would be definedas ovaries and uterus, since sex is clearly a complicated combinationchemical and physical traits.
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patregan • 2 years ago DreyStaxx
If you have your uterus sergically removed (for some medical reason) thenyou can't compete the next day as a woman? It's not that simple!
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jcweasley • 2 years ago
Frankly, a lot of the female athletes have a "masculine appearance". They're tall,they're muscular, they're intense, determined, and combative. However, none ofthem sport beard stubble, which shows up pretty well on the sweaty male athletes.Neither does Semenya, not that that proves or disproves anything. And neither didshe win a gold medal. The whiners just need to run faster. Another female athletedid.
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rosamarillo • 2 years ago
For a literary approach to this subject, read "Middlesex" by Jeff Eugenides. Greatbook, well researched
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Bistra Nikiforova • 2 years ago
@IsmanieG: you said that "she was born, was raised, socialized and trained as afemale" That constitutes her gender. But that does not make up for her being awoman in biological sense. Since she lacks reproductive organs of a woman (shedid not know she does not have ovaries and uterus until she was tested at age...18? what about her period that she never got?) and does not have the reproductiveorgans of a man either, she is definitely a "third sex." I wonder if she has to competewith women or with men.
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IsmanieG • 2 years ago
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Bistra Nikiforova
I understand that. Where gender (social) and sex (biological) intersect is a big gray area, so therules are not that simple. Hence why its an article on gender testing, not sextesting... My argument for Caster is this:
She's not a man. She's in the gray area, yes, but she identifies with and hasbeen put into a category that she still kind of fits into. And I think that THATshould be allowed. There aren't enough people in her category to evenconceive creating another third sex category. Olympics and sport should bemore worried about those who have a known advantage, not penalize thosewho have an advantage that is not their own doing. She cannot help herbiology.
The girl won silver so obviously her "advantage" isn't an absolute. Shouldwe then penalize taller players or players with larger hands that allows themto handle ball better? Obviously their genes give them an advantage, butthey're not treated like she is. That's not fair. They cannot help it, nor canshe.
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Ida Malone Jackson • 2 years ago
This young woman is clearly a girl. I've seen other women from other cultures whohave manly physical traits. I'm sorry to see that all of this testing has boiled down to"testosterone." If she was born with eggs, then she is a female. Only women areborn with eggs. Men are born with sperms. It's just that simple. I pray that this younglady runs the best race that she can in the 800. God made her the way she is sothat makes her perfect in His sight. May you give birth to many, many children in thefuture, if that be your desire and remember that no weapon formed against you shallprosper.
Not all women can give birth, but all women are born with eggs. Not all men cangive birth, but they are born with sperms. That is God's way of letting us know whathe created us as man or woman.
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CallyAm • 2 years ago Ida Malone Jackson
So I guess you did not read the article or you are incredibly uninformed. Shehas no ovaries. No ovaries, no eggs.
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James Carothers • 2 years ago
Why don't they just eliminate all this and let every contest be open to anyone whoqualifies athletically?
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7685540 • 2 years ago
How aboit we just eliminate gender from the Olympics?
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IsmanieG • 2 years ago 7685540
sex not equal to gender (though this article doesn't really go into that)... but I
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sex not equal to gender (though this article doesn't really go into that)... but Ithink you mean sex from your comment...
Then all women would win pole vault because they're lighter and men wouldwin all races because they can build more muscle.
Men and women are different in many inherent biological ways... So as atrue test of their skills and determination as athletes ONLY, they mustbe separated by sex...
The problem is that there's a smaller percentage of the population that is alittle bit of he and her, an almost taboo gray area that's sometimes by choice,sometimes not... So people aren't sure of what to do with that.
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crazyworld44 • 2 years ago
How do you really define a female physically? No ovaries of womb sounds like a redflag....but who knows?
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FreeDumbie • 2 years ago
Just use the "ChickfilA Test"...works every time!
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Guest • 2 years ago
Intersexed almost always means the person in question has testes versus ovariesand a masculine appearance. You rarely see an intersexed individual living as aman with ovaries. Essentially, this makes them far more male than female andgives them a distinct advantage over women without this genetic anomaly. If youare genetically a male, then compete against men.
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jeffho • 2 years ago
Why not simply base the test on external (visible) parts? Getting into internal organsand testerone levels lead to more controversy and certainly testerone levels canvary widely even among certifiable females.
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taurusdrum • 2 years ago jeffho
Because external anatomy is not always an adequate indicator of whether aperson is genetically male or female.
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Guest • 2 years ago
I don't get it... either you have a Y chromosome, or you don't.
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IsmanieG • 2 years ago Guest
not that simple... look up XY females
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CanBear67 • 2 years ago Guest
IsmanieG: Yes, but we're just talking about the rules of a competition, nothow you choose to live your life. For the rules of the competiton, I think youshould be XX to compete as a woman. Anything else, and you shouldcompete in the male division.
There's no such thing as a perfect solution but I think that is the best solution.
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IsmanieG • 2 years ago CanBear67
Having a Y chromosome doesn't necessarily give you anadvantage... which is why I think the article mentioned that they'retesting testosterone now instead of simply just genetics... Forexample: XY females are never males in any way other then in theirgenes. They never go through the male puberty that gives themthe testosterone boost that worries so many...
I don't think that there will ever be a true resolution, but I think itshould be determined by the onset of your training: are you identifiedas a female, training as a female against other females? If you
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started off as a male because of your biology at some point, then youshould continue to compete as a male, even if you identify as afemale later on. The muscle memory and advantage that you getfrom training is something that can't be turned off so easily regardlessif your biology is changed by surgery or hormone therapy. Asmost Olympians start training from adolescence, I think the unfairadvantage that testosterone gives would be nipped in the bud a bitbetter... it still excludes or discriminates against some as gender isvery broad and complicated and we're trying to ascribe rules tosomething that there aren't any rules to, but hey no unfair advantage!
Transsexuals would likely be penalized the most because of thisbecause they choose to outwardly change their sex (even if theydidn't consciously choose to identify as the other sex internally), butpeople like Caster who did nothing and had no choice in the matterwouldn't...
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CanBear67 • 2 years ago IsmanieG
No, that wouldn't work. Many females train with and againstmales in many sports. In high school wrestling competitions,it's actually quite common for males to compete againstfemales in the same weight division. Does that mean theyshould be disqualified from competing as females later on? And we're also talking about rules for a competition here. How could the IOC possibly prove that you were "training as afemale against other females"?
If you are going to bother to have a male division and a femaledivision, then there must be hard and fast concrete rules forcompeting in each.
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IsmanieG • 2 years ago Guest
CanBear67: Rules of a competition are used to control the conduct ofplayers... This is not something that she can control, thus the rules don'tapply. And the fact that she won a silver means that her "advantage" isn'tabsolute, as many factors play into want makes an Olympian. Her genesshouldn't be one of those factors, but a lifestyle is a controllable factor, so Ithink my suggestion would work the best (just in my opinion, I see your point,I just don't agree, lol)... obviously, there's still some things unaddressed, butthere are no absolute solutions.
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andy6581 • 2 years ago
Testes? She should not be allowed to compete.
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Robyn • 2 years ago
Gender is a social construct, not a biological one, and is not limited in many culturesto "male" and "female", not wholly based on the physical differences between thebiological sexes. Biological sex refers to whether or not one is XX (female) or XY(male). The article should state that they are testing her biological sex, not hergender, as the only test for that is asking her and her society how she is defined bytheir gender categories. This is a major difference, and one a journalist should getright.
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MJSouth • 2 years ago
Female athletes continue to see unfair advantage in transgender athletes, especiallyin triathlons. Certainly not a personal criticism, but there is no comparison in femaleto male.
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refugeek • 2 years ago
The future is genetic. There will be genetically modified humans. Lots of them. TheOlympics will have to deal with this somehow.
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Caster Semenya celebrates taking silver at the IAAF World Championships in2011.
Expert: Gender testing 'imperfect' forfemale athletesBy Ann J. Curley , CNNAugust 8, 2012 Updated 1304 GMT (2104 HKT)
(CNN) Middledistance runner Caster Semenya carried theSouth African flag last month in opening ceremonies for the2012 Olympic Games in London.
That was quite a change for the powerhouse runner, who threeyears ago was scrutinized for issues other than her athleticperformance before being cleared to compete.
Semenya gained attention in 2009 before the WorldChampionships in Berlin not for her athletic prowess, butbecause some questioned the then18yearold's gender.
Her masculine appearance had raised concerns andcomplaints to the International Association of AthleticsFederations, the governing body for all international athleticcompetitions outside the Olympics.
Before the World Championships began, the IAAF confirmedSemenya was being tested for gender verification.
The concept of gender testing for athletes is not new. Variousmethods have been used to assure that men do not compete aswomen, which would give them an unfair athletic advantage.
While both men and women produce testosterone in theirbodies, in men it produces more muscle, adding to athleticprowess. Women use testosterone to produce estrogen, thefemale hormone.
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