Caster Semenya court case due 15 May

[QuetzalTerfLus]

I was wondering about Caster Semenya today and googled to find this -

https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1143701/semenya-ask-help-funding-legal-battle

which notes that the next hearing is scheduled for 15 May - does anyone know if that is still on track (haha) to happen?

And it's possible without sperm.

This 'stranger' is directly harming women.

Sorry? you are telling us that males with 5ARD are not capable of being the biological father of a child, aren't you?

That is not quite correct.

No, I'm saying they are capable, even without sperm.

My mistake, I am sorry.

However, it is also very possible that Semenya could be producing sperm that is viable and that they could be the biological father of the two children.

Well, either way it's irrelevant to athletic performance and they should still be banned for having an unfair advantage in the form of male body type. If the children are Semenya's they are keeping it quiet because of the court of public opinion.

I am uncomfortable about Caster Semenya. When watching athletics in the past before all this blew up I did honestly think Caster and Margaret Warumbi looked particularly masculine, but put it down to general genetic differences (but not DSDs as I had no clue about them).

I had a great deal of sympathy when the DSD was “revealed” to the world, and assumed it was a surprise to Semenya at that time. I know nothing of their life outside athletics and don’t think clothing, marriage, alleged fathering of children (does this condition not mean sterility?) matter.

I do think if you have as DSD that makes your sex difficult to identify you should get to choose how you present and be absolutely accepted as such if that’s how you’ve chosen to live your life BUT not be a licence to sweep the board at athletic competitions.

If it’s true athletics directors are actively seeking children with genuine DSDs to deliberately tilt their successes then they should be banned from athletics management - this could really be damaging to the health of these would-be athletes.

I do think Caster should be excluded from female competition (as biologically male) even though this may seem harsh - there was no element of choice here, just a quirk of nature. It’s certainly not in the same ballpark as Lia Thomas or Laurel Hubbard in my view.

It's exactly the same ballpark as Lia Thomas and Lauren Hubbard. 5-ARD Males go through normal male puberty. It's just a lack of pubic or facial hair and the appearance of the genitals which would make them stand out from other men.

There's no need to make special accommodations in women's sport for males with DSDs. Since they are male, and boys outperform girls athletically, it's not fair to allow them to compete in a female category, even if they can't make use of the androgens they produce, or don't produce enough testosterone. Their DSD is not our problem to sort out.

Harshness doesn't come into it because this is strictly a one-way street. Women (with or without DSDs) are not able to compete with men.

Sometimes, clever use of language can disguise the truth. She may well have conceived through insemination, but that insemination could have consisted of Semenya’s own sperm mechanically produced in clinic. Ie, he is the actual donor!

Well, I've thought about this far too much now, but, fwiw, based on available clues, this is what I think:

Semenya does not produce sperm, but has internal gonads containing immature germ cells which can be used in a type of IVF, because they already contain all the right genetic information.

This would not involve insemination, but Semenya's wife may have used this word to obscure the truth. Or, it could have been donor insemination.

The paper I linked to states quite clearly that males with 5ARD can produce sperm. It may need assistance to fertilise due to a range of issues, including motility, but males with 5ARD can produce sperm. ie. If you have not seen proof that Semenya cannot produce sperm, why declare that Semenya cannot produce sperm?

"immature germ cells which can be used in a type of IVF"

Is there clinics offering this ? I thought this was still experimental. I have not seen any clinics offering it only papers about animal trials. Could you please post where you have this information from?

Didn't the Austrian skier have the same DSD as Semenya? I remember reading that he had an operation to descend his testicles and then he fathered a child naturally.

The paper related to a male assigned at birth with imperfectly formed genitals. Semenya was AFAB therefore likely has a more complete lack of 5-alpha reductase which produces superficially female genitalia with a shallow vagina, and internal gonads which contain spermatogonia (meiosis has already occurred) but are incapable of spermatogenesis.

I think it's unlikely she would have been AFAB if she had balls.

Aha! Austrian skier guy may shed more light! Will look him up later.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intracytoplasmic_sperm_injection

I think ROSI might be relevant. It uses round spermatids, but I'm sure I've read elsewhere about using spermatogonia.

I think that's correct about him, but we don't know for sure about Caster Semenya. It's not really our business.
He's a man, though. That is our business because he is competing in women's sport.

Boys with this DSD usually have testicles that are internal, undescended, and produce normal male levels of testosterone.

Ok thanks

5-ARD is not one specific mutation but dozens or potentially hundreds of different variations. Therefore it's not possible to speculate about the spermatogenesis in Caster Semenya's testes/epididymides.

What is clear however is that Caster benefits from male levels of testosterone produced by testes, and is sensitive to testosterone, and therefore for biological purposes, and for sporting purposes, is clearly male.

I've just come across what I think is a very good article, in the Graun, by Tanya Aldred. I don't recognise her, but will look out for her, from now. She says all the things which the Tra La Las have tried to suppress, regarding male pubertal and hence, physical advantages:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/apr/21/ioc-decision-female-category-olympics-trans-athletes

Central to the new policy on the protection of the female category is that male physical advantage is real. Men hold a performance advantage over women of 10-12% in most running and swimming events and at least 20% in most throwing and jumping events. The advantage can be more than 100% in explosive events such as boxing or weightlifting. The IOC document says: “Males have larger and stronger skeletal muscle and bone, larger and stronger hearts, larger lung size, more red blood cells, and lower body fat than females trained to the equivalent level. Together these attributes afford males individual sex-based performance advantages in sports and events that rely on strength, power and/or endurance.”

Did Caster not say his testicles didnt make him any less of a woman? Suggesting he does have internal testicles.