I must confess I never thought much about intersex individuals until South African runner Caster Semenya was subjected to sex verification testing following her taking gold in the 800m World Athletics Championship and the tabloids and paparazzi chased her and her family down.
"Intersex refers to the atypical appearance of the external genitalia at birth where they differ from the usual development of either sex and create difficulty in sex assignment, "Robert Ritchie, MD, pediatric urologist, Churchill Hospital, Oxford, UK, and colleagues wrote in an essay on Intersex and the Olympic Games. There are also cases where the internal genitalia are atypical. The medical community uses the term "DSD" or Disorders of Sexual Development to refer to people with intersex conditions.
Semenya was put through so much humiliation that she pulled out of an upcoming race and went into hiding. Some press accounts state that she has internal testes and no ovaries; the testing committee has not verified the results. But this is certain: she was not a person trying to cheat and she is also not a man.
Have you ever given much thought to what it must be like to be born with ambiguous internal or external genitalia? I hadn't, but now I am wondering. That's not the only thing: what might you feel like, how would you be in the world, if a urologist and your parents decided when you were born to do reconstructive surgery so that they could raise you in the sex that they felt most comfortable with?
I spoke with Bo Laurent (also known as Cheryl Chase), who founded the Intersex Society of North America (ISNA) 15 years ago. According to Laurent, intersex is "not a one in a million event, but occurs in about 1 in 2,000 births." And the public and many academics are very titillated by it, she explained, projecting their own anxiety over the proper role of men and women.
Laurent advises parents who give birth to a child with ambiguous genitalia to give their newborn child love and not let this get you down when your child is born. "Parents and health professionals are far too focused on a child's genitals," she said. "This is definitely not a medical emergency." She opposes early sex reassignment/reconstructive surgery. In fact, ISNA was founded with the goals of building a world free of shame, secrecy, and unwanted sexual surgeries.
Caster Semenya is not the first intersex person to face shame and humiliation in sports. Most likely, Irina and Tamara Press, who dominated female field and track in the 1950s and 1960s, were intersex females, as was Ewa Klobukowska, a Polish sprinter, according to Dr. Robert Ritchie.
India's Santhi Soundarajan won the silver in the 800 m event during the 15th Asian Games in Qatar in 2006, but she was stripped of her medals because she flunked a sex test.
I have to say that I am ashamed to live in a world where intersex individuals are treated so horridly. Is it really everybody's business? They are not circus freaks whose privacy should be invaded. Do people have to go into hiding or abandon their careers?
It is going to be dicey trying to figure out what place intersex people have in international sports. What will it mean if some women are more virilized than others? Can that be measured and separated from training and preparation? Should they be penalized from female sports?
How does that compare with people who are extraordinarily tall or strong by virtue of some internal difference? Or Lance Armstrong having some edge because of something unusual about his mitochondria?
I don't know the answers. I am just hoping that people can be more sensitive about this issue, take a hard look at their own voyeurism, and I wish that international sports authorities will treat this with dignity.
In closing, I'd like to provide resources and information for people so that they can learn more about intersex. Later, on this website, I will put articles up so you can better understand intersex diagnosis, controversies over treatment, and how to cope.
This is so rarely discussed openly. I hope that you share your thoughts here.
Resources
Androgen Insensitivity Support Group
Parents' Support Groups on DSD Guidelines Organization website.
There was actually a TV show on this subject. I think it’s called “The Practice”. The parents were hell bent on the baby being one sex or another immediately, while the doctors urged them to wait to perform the surgery until some sexual orientation could be determined. Very interesting subject, and certainly one that should be treated with respect and dignity.
I was saddened to learn what happened to this runner. It feels like an issue that generates great anxiety- that often the boundary between the genders can be blurry and there are individuals who don’t meet our expectations. I remember meeting a teenager who had this experience. She was raised as a female but when she hit puberty she showed more male characteristics. Yet she was identified as a girl. Most of the other teens were truly awful to her. Yet you expect more from adults.