Intersexuality both disturbs and frightens people because it threatens the fundamental and sometimes even essential idea of how our world is created. When a baby is born the first question we rightly ask is whether it is a girl or a boy. What’ll it be? Pink or blue? But the truth is nature and creation aren’t quite that simple or perfect.
So who exactly is Mokgadi Caster Semenya? She is a South African teenager; an elite track athlete; a world champion 800- meter runner. And now? The subject of much controversy.
Recently the 18-year-old’s masculine construct caused many to question her gender. After her world championship win in Berlin, testing revealed her testosterone levels were much higher than the average woman. And now, Australian media has “broken” a story claiming Semenya is a hermaphrodite possessing internal testes but no ovaries or uterus. Sounds like a pretty simple open and shut case to the uninformed commoner. Ban her. She’s a dude, bro! Ban her, ya!?
First of all, it is quite unlikely that Semenya could be a hermaphrodite. If the article’s claims are true, she is more than likely a pseudohermaphrodite. This is because hermaphroditism is an extremely unusual condition in which a person contains ovaries producing eggs and testes producing sperm with external genitalia being a combination of both male and female. If she does in fact have only internal testes, hermaphrodite is the wrong word to use. Common sense also tells us she quite clearly and visibly does not have external male reproductive organs because any official would have been able to see this during testing for doping.
So at the worst, Semenya probably exhibits indistinct, undefined genitalia, which does indeed point to pseudohermaphroditism. Further, claiming right now Semenya is not a woman or saying she is a man is completely callous, wrong almost downright evil. She was raised all her life as a girl, and had up to this point no reason to doubt that being the case. Now, the runner is receiving trauma counseling after the world’s claims that she is a hermaphrodite.
It is tremendously careless to claim male, female or hermaphrodite at this stage because classification of intersex disorders is incredibly complex. Many break down these disorders into three categories: conditions resulting in a masculinized female, others resulting in an under-masculinized male and pure hermaphroditism. So, given the nature of the claims, choice three should seem to you now quite improbable, since she allegedly contains no uterus or ovaries. For the same reason, you could also rule out condition one.
All that remains is condition two, an under-masculinized male. And yet, it is still not that easy. We all learned in biology in “normal” humans an XY combination creates a male with testes and an XX combination creates a woman with ovaries. However, this is not always the case. Known to exist are many disorders of sexual development (DSDs) including Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome (AIS), chromosomal abnormalities like XXX, XO and mosaicism, or enzyme deficiencies which can cause intersex conditions that cause unclear genitalia and mismatching physical traits for the genetic sex.
In Semenya’s case then, if the alleged test results are true, she would be lacking a uterus because she was originally designed to be male. She would have indeed produced internal testes during development, but because of insensitivity to testosterone (caused by AIS) normal effect on the reproductive system would not have been seen. Therefore, she could and would have then developed as a female by default regardless of male hormones and organs.
A-5-reductase deficiency is a condition in which the enzyme alpha-5-reductase is deficient. Similarly to AIS, when this enzyme is lacking, a person cannot convert testosterone to dihydrotestosterone (DHT). DHT is critical for the growth of external male genitalia, and when someone is deficient they too develop internal testes and are male (technically, because they lack a uterus or ovaries) with an external physical appearance. But again, because of the lack of DHT, this person defaults during development as a female. This would fall into the masculinzed female condition mentioned earlier.
During the 1996 Olympics, eight women were identified as “genetic males,” and all eight were allowed to compete. They all had the same alleged results Semenya exhibits: lacking a uterus and ovaries along with the possible presence of internal testes.
What should be done then you ask? Firstly and most importantly, if internal testes are present, then they should be surgically removed immediately. And before you get all angry about human rights and choosing and this or that, realize that this should and is almost always done because of health reasons. That is because when present, the testes often easily become malignant and lethal. So ironically, this painful and horrible ordeal of sex identification may in fact be saving Semenya’s life – she would have never been tested for something like this had she not been an elite athlete.
If they are there and are consequently removed, there is no valid argument as to why Semenya should not continue to compete as a female. Did you know the International Association of Athletic Federations permits males to have sex changes and then compete as females, if they serve a two-year “benched” period from the sport and have hormone therapy? When seen in this context, having some kind of chromosomal or enzymatic condition pales in comparison with a move as drastic as a conscious sex change!
All superior athletes have something a little different from the rest of us in some genetic way. It is ignorant to state it is only testosterone that differentiates men from women. Not to mention, the ranges don’t overlap. They’re not even close! The bottom end of the male testosterone spectrum is almost 400 percent higher than the top of the female range! So even if she allegedly had three times the normal level for a woman, they are nowhere near the male range. That is, ladies and gentlemen, the misconstruction of facts to insinuate an uneducated reader into thinking, “Woah, three times the normal level? She’s a dude!”
We cannot assume all men and women are “equal.” Not all men are as fast as Usain Bolt. Similarly, not all women are “equal,” and I’m sure varying testosterone levels are indeed part of that variation. I admit that there is some imaginary line at which a division should be drawn, but please realize that the presence of testosterone is not the lone marker of maleness. It is so much more complex.
So yes, Mokgadi Caster Semenya could very well be an XY woman. An amazing, hardworking and inspiring one. Yes, she has flowing muscles, but have you seen the other female athletes she races against? I feel nothing but shame and disgust at the way her situation has been handled, and I sincerely hope her career does not end as a result of this.
Julio Cespedes is a senior majoring in biological engineering. He can be contacted at [email protected].