Caster Semenya and Gender Testing: What is a Hermaphrodite?

Posted by Jenny Evans Sep 19, 2009

To me, athletics = boring, so I don't keep tabs on sports news too much. But I have to admit that the coverage of runner Caster Semenya caught my eye. At first I was just baffled about all the hoopla. "Just find out what chromosomes she's got and be done with it!" I thought. "XX she's a girl, XY she's a boy."

However, I did some more research. What is a human hermaphrodite, anyway? I found out some interesting things, and learned that it's not as simple as XX or XY. For both chromosomal makeups, there are individuals with a female anatomy and a male reproductive system, as well as people with a male anatomy and a female reproductive system. Not to mention the XXX, XXY, and XO chromosome types out there.

Like I said, it's a lot more complicated than I thought.

Source:

"Intersex," Google Health.