“My testicles don’t make me less of a woman,” ~ Caster Semenya

Testicles also make her a lesbian because she's married to a women.

Who is saying she has a vagina and breasts? I have seen no evidence Semenya has more developed breasts than a typical male.

And here is the definition of vagina: "
The passage leading from the opening of the vulva to the cervix of the uterus in female mammals." By this definition, there's no way Semenya has a vagina.

Given that she lacks breasts, vagina, uterus, and ovaries - all the parts of the body unique to women - and has never had them, and has XY chromosomes and some male sex organs, it's hard for me to understand how she can be described as intersex as opposed to male. Shouldn't she have female sex organs in order to be described as intersex? Maybe she does have ovaries?

The incidence is roughly 1 in 5,000 live births, so it would make sense that there were individuals prior to drug testing. She was dominant as an athlete in multiple sports, was infertile, had colon cancer (it is not uncommon for testicular cancer to mestastisize to the colon, and undescended thread testicles become cancerous about 50% of the time), and had masculine features (prominent Adam’s Apple, male facial features and advanced musculature for the era before weight training was widespread).

Yes, anything is possible, but I think you're jumping to conclusions.

First, 1 in 5000 people are not born male but minus external genetalia. That 1 in 5000 covers all manner of variations, many or most of which wouldn't result in an XY athlete presenting as a woman.

She might have just had PCOS, leading to elevated testosterone levels, but nothing like what men have. She obviously has breasts and doesn't look that muscular to me.

museumofthegulfcoast.org

Babe Zaharias | mogc

Open link

condenaststore.com

A Portrait Of Mildred Babe Didrikson by Acme

A Portrait Of Mildred Babe Didrikson by Acme

Open link

Colon cancer is not at all unusual in women. I have two aunts who had it.

I think it's important to keep in mind how much less competitive sports were back then.

Being South African “also make her a lesbian because she’s married to a women”.

Isn't this the same person who said they didn't feel like a girl cause he didn't fit traditional gender norms growing up?

So let's get this straight: he doesn't fit the traditional "gender norms" associated with being female and doesn't have the biologic makeup of a female....but is somehow a woman. Amazing.

I used to feel sympathy for someone in his situation, but now it appears he just wants to guilt-trip everyone into allowing him to cheat.

Please don't say this. Removal of Semenya's healthy testes would likely do Semenya a great deal of physical and psychological harm.

Semenya has testified in court and stated in many interviews that Semeny suffered horribly when Semenya took oral estrogen to suppress Semenya's testicular function in an effort to lower Semenya's serum testosterone level to 10 nmol/L.

Even though 10 nmol/L is still well within the normal range of T for healthy males (7.7-29.4 nmol/L), Semenya found it extremely difficult to function with a T level in that vicinity. Semenya says the several-year period in Semenya's life (2010-2015) when Semenya took estrogen to try to lower Semenya's T was "torture." Semenya likened it to being "stabbed" in the gut every day.

Of course, Semenya's hyperbolic claims can't be taken at face value. IMO, little that Semenya says can be trusted because Semenya is a scam artist running a long con who's gotten a great deal of mileage out of lying and playing the victim. Still, I think it would be unjustifiably cruel for Semenya to undergo castration.

To add to your excellent points: it turns out that the risk of testicular cancer in males with internal testes has been vastly over-estimated by medical practioners over-eager to "fix" and "feminize" males with DSDs by castrating them.

In some conditions leading to disorders or differences of male sex development featuring cryptorchidism, such as AIS, there is a small additional lifetime risk of developing testicular cancer. But the cancers that develop in the internal testes of persons with AIS have been found to be slow growing and self-contained - the cancer doesn't quickly (or ever) metasize to other organs.

As a result, removing the testes of males with DSDs as a precaution against the possibility of cancer is no longer recommended or done the way it was once.

In the case of Semenya's particular DMSD - XY 5-ARD - there's never been any evidence that castration as a precaution against testicular cancer could be medically or ethically justified. From Orphanet:

The risk of gonadal tumors in individuals with SRD5A2 mutations is quite low. Prostate diseases (prostate cancer, benign prostate hyperplasia) have not been reported in affected males. Most men [with this DSD] are infertile due to the small prostate gland causing diminished semen volume and lack of spontaneous fertility; however, artificial reproductive techniques are a possibility.

Based.

Taking t lowering drugs probably made cs feel like less of a man and more like a woman ie weaker, slower, etc.. isn't that the point? The women she wants to beat are also competing with this same lower t levels.

As the expert on this, RunRagged, can confirm, Semenya has no female reproductive organs and lacks mammary glands as well. No anatomical features unique to XX females are present. So nobody is saying, "This woman with breasts and various female body parts is actually male." But various posters ARE saying, "This individual who has all male anatomy minus one very immediately noticeable part, and more importantly, male hormone levels both during competition and during development, is male."

Agree or not, that is what various posters contend. Now, the prostate missing was added by RunRagged - and many thanks to her for very informed and educated posting - so perhaps more than just one organ is absent when compared to a great majority of males.

But neither the prostate nor the other appendage is what gives the best male runners an 11% advantage over the best female runners over a wide range of distances. (It could be 10%, then 9, as the events get longer. By the way, you may notice that Semenya was nowhere near 11% better than the best XX athletes. That would have put the performances in question close to men's world records. But Semenya is also not at the very top of male performance. Nor are 99.99% of male athletes.)

Testosterone and other hormones do. Semenya's hormones are, and have been since prior to birth, well within (not at the bottom end of) typical male ranges.

This is why many believe that Semenya, athough welcome to compete in men's competitions, should not be allowed to compete in women's competitions. You may agree or not, but that is what one faction of posters believes. Just clearing up apparent confusion as to what exactly is being written here.

It would probably help if your first linked picture didn't show an Adam's apple lol

This whole conversation is nuts.

Imagine hating pronouns so much that you literally remove the entire part of speech from your vocabulary.

Why not get rid of the word "it" as well?

I get that you are trying to be cute, but it comes off as overly petty.

I met this young lady and her wife once and got an autograph and photos.Such a gracious and humble soul and she has a smaller build than I expected. I love her to bits.

I honestly just feel bad for Semenya. She was raised her entire life as a woman, she has always competed as a woman and worked just as hard as anyone else, and none of this was her choice.

I absolutely respect her gender identity and think it’s totally fine that she says she’s a woman because she is, but she does have a genetic anomaly that essentially makes her an unwilling doper no matter what. It’s a sad situation and I feel for her but it’s not fair for her to compete.

Insanity, but I don't blame her and feel sorry for the situation. But in the end the solution is not that 99% of XX athletes suffer because of a few XY athletes. Those XY athletes stuck in no man's land (pun intended) can either compete with the rest of the men or sit out.

I mostly agree, but it is actually fair for her to compete, with the other XY athletes.

get it?