Caster Semenya - can someone explain this to me?

[Aridane]

Apparently her case is going to the Court of Arbitration for Sport next week.

Can someone explain the issues here?

Press reports seem to vary from hyperandrogenism ( excess testosterone) and that her testosterone levels should be reduced.

Other reports suggest intersex.

Apparently the results if gender testing were not disclosed.

(results of gender testing)

As I understand it, the hearing is not specifically about CS, it is about whether there should be a limit on testosterone levels in athletes competing in women's events.

More informative link here

Do the general public actually know the specifics in Semenya’s case?

Caster Semenya is an Intersex woman.
She has excess testosterone caused by internal testes, which have caused some aspects of her physical development to present as typically male (some muscle development particularly).

I had alley read the BBC article but TBH didn't really understand it especially as it seemed to assume a pre existing degree of knowledge

(already, not alley)

I thought the report today said that Caster was in fact male (and I understand it, all intersex people are either male or female).

Testosterone is not the only issue, though - greater musculature, skeletal development etc give a huge advantage.

I'm confused- have seen different reports today referring bothoto intersex but also to hyperandrogenism

That BBC report IS confusing. It says Caster is male. But can compete as a female, so long as she reduces her testosterone levels

(and I understand it, all intersex people are either male or female)

No, that's the thing with being intersex - you're somewhere inbetween the two sexes, as you have characteristics of both.

There are many variations of being intersex, including some where the chromosomes are abnormal (eg Klinefelter syndrome is XXY chromosomes, with the person appearing male). Call the Midwife did a good episode with an intersex character a couple of weeks ago - in that case the character appeared female but had internal testes, a vagina and no womb.

Intersex conditions are surprisingly common - as common as redheads.

Careful with ‘as common as redheads’ - there was a Radio 4 More or Less on this recently...as common as redheads are worldwide (and that includes some hormone only conditions rather than just what a non medic thinks of as intersex).

Was interesting...www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000222z

Avocados, you need to listen to the More or Less podcast that addressed this. It started with the obvious point that 'as common as redheads' means very little because prevalence of redheads varies a lot across the world.

Secondly, intersex does not mean being in between the sexes. The vast majority of people with disorders of sexual development are clearly male or female but something has gone wrong with some aspect of the reproductive system in the womb. The Call the Midwife episode was about a very, very rare condition where a male foetus has a faulty X chromosome that causes androgen insensitivity. This means that the Y chromosome kicks off the development of the testicles but the fault in the X chromosome means the body ignores the signals coming from testosterone and so the body develops female external genitalia and the testicles are left inside the body. The character in CTM looked female but was actually XY.

Great minds, Delurking!

Reports also refer to "athletes with differences of sexual development" rather than intersex or hypoandrogenism. Still confused