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New York, 10:50 AM
Sat Dec 19
42 posts in the last 24 hours
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09/11/09
You could be one of them - unless you've had a gene test recently.
If the reports are correct, Caster Semenya has PAIS-6. Partial Androgen Insensitivity grade 6, where grade 7 is Complete Androgen Insensitivity (CAIS).
The IAAS rules on the subject state:
"(The crux of the matter is that the athlete should not be enjoying the benefits of natural testosterone predominance normally seen in a male)
6. Conditions that should be allowed:
(a) Those conditions that accord no advantage over other females:
- Androgen insensitivity syndrome (Complete or almost complete -
previously called testicular feminization);
- Gonadal dysgenesis (gonads should be removed surgically to avoid
malignancy);
- Turner’s syndrome.
(b) Those conditions that may accord some advantages but nevertheless
acceptable:
- Congenital adrenal hyperplasia;
- Androgen producing tumors;
- Anovulatory androgen excess (polycystic ovary syndrome)."
She has "almost complete androgen insensitivity". Not complete, or she would look 100% feminine. But three times the usual range of testosterone for women is not that unusual, comparable with that from PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome), an allowable condition, *especially* since she's insensitive to it, so it has half or less effect.
I'm Intersexed. A protandrous dichogamous pseudohermaphrodite to be technical. I prefer "woman with an interesting medical history" or just plan "woman" for short.
We're human. And we walk among you. Some of you are Intersexed and don't know it, unlike my own rare and spectacular condition.
We shun the limelight. From this story, and some of the pig-ignorant commentary, you can see why. Some people don't just assault with words, they use baseball bats.
Let's just say that watching "Battlestar Galactica" meant more to me than most viewers.
She's a teenage girl. One who has given her all to become a world-class athlete. Now her life has been comprehensively destroyed, by leaks of personal medical data other human beings have a right to keep private.
Like Santhi Soundararajan, an Indian athlete who was treated similarly, she'll probably attempt suicide.
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I think she should still keep the medals because the test doesn't say yes she is a man only... it says she is a man and a woman. So she should still qualify for women running races and now man races too. :D
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09/10/09
Would you think the same way if they were not Africans? And do you honestly think they did not know their own child was not all together a biological woman?
What is wrong with you people? Seriously. Why are you preconditioned to sympathize with certain people and not others and give them the benefit of the doubt when clearly they are in fault. Do you not realized you are as biased as Rep. Joe Wilson, but just on the opposite side of the radar?
09/11/09
If a kid in a rural area in the United State hardly ever goes to the doctor for regular check ups it's easy for me to believe that a kid growing up in a small village in South Africa differently never seen a doctor at all while growing up.
This could be a new revelation to her and her family.
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Also I can believe you put me and Joe "You lie" Wilson in the same category.
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09/10/09
I think it's worth mentioning that at the Beijing Olympics nobody said boo about Dana Torres. Granted she has had childen, but that alone should not 'prove' her sex. We can't just selectively put some women athletes through the ringer and fawn over what good mothers other ones are.
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no womb. no ovaries.
not having ovaries would point to very little estrogen, and even confusing genitalia would make this person hard pressed to not be identified as male....
her voice in the video i've seen, i mean, i dont care if you put lipstick on her...she's not a she.
and thats fine, but in international competition, it's simply not fair to whoever competes against 'her'
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how does that apply here?
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But the logical conclusion a female teenage athlete (or one who thought she was a female) would reach about why she is not getting her period would be the stress of training, not "I have undescended testicles and no uterus."
09/10/09
I don't think so...
09/11/09
No longer having a period is one thing, never having one in the first place is another.
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