Articles - Two Caribbean Gynecologists In New York Look At Case Of South Africa’s Caster Semanya, World 800 Meters Champion

“Yes, in my own practice I have had such patients.”Dr. Milton Haynes, one of New York’s leading gynecologists, was reacting to published reports that 18 year old Caster Semenya, the South African 800 meters gold medal winner at the 2009 World Championships in Berlin was “a woman but maybe not 100 percent,” as Pierre Weis, General Secretary of the International Associations of Athletics Federations, was quoted as saying.

In other words, she has both male and female sexual organs.

In the World Champion’s case, she is said to have a vagina but no ovaries and certainly not a penis. That’s not all. Most of the other related internal organs were that of a male.

“It’s not something you see quite often in your everyday practice as a gynecologist,” added Dr. Haynes, a Caribbean-American and an associate professor of gynecology at New York University. “But when the diagnosis is made early it requires a lot of counseling of the parents who must decide how they want the child to grow up, whether as a male or a female.”

Dr. Errol Byer, a prominent Brooklyn gynecologist who was honored recently by the New York City Council had a similar reaction.

“I have had some of these types of cases and I would say genetically, the South African champion is a male and she would have had internal male sexual characteristics, which would include testes or testicular tissue that produce testosterone which caused her to exhibit certain male characteristics. That’s why she looked a lot like a male,” he said. “But she was raised as a woman and therefore she is a woman. When you looked down she looks like a woman” with a vagina.

“She didn’t have breasts but was flat chested. She did not exhibit any secondary characteristics of a female,” Dr. Byer said. “When I have such patients I sit down with the parents and discuss the issue, because a lot depends on how the mother and the father wish the children to be raised as male or female.

“It’s important to have psycho-social counseling, because their decision can involve surgery and it must be done quite early in the child’s life, before the age of 18 months to make the child male or female,” he added. “I inform the parents about the consequences of their actions but I tend to lean towards allowing the child to be raised a female.”

Why?

“Although the parents have to make the decision, I have seen situations in which parents opted for a boy but it turned out badly,” was all Dr. Byer would say.

But he insisted that if done early, “chances are it would turn out okay.”

The story of Semenya, a first year sports science student at Pretoria University has captivated the world, triggering condemnation of the IAAF and the way it handled her case after she had vanquished the opposition. There were allegations of racism seeping into the discussion.

Dr. Haynes, a former President of the 5,000 member-New York County Medical Society in Manhattan who became President of the New York Gynecological Society said that the South African grew up as a woman and she would continue to be a female. Dr. Byer insists it’s clear that throughout Semenya’s young life she was a woman, wearing women’s underwear and so on.

“She was raised as a woman and therefore she should be treated as a woman,” he added.

Interestingly, Dr. Byer, the father of two children who are also gynecologists, described the athlete as a pseudo-hermaphrodite, meaning that she has internal reproductive organs of one sex, male while exhibiting some of the external physical characteristics of a female with a vagina.

“Pseudo-hermophroditism can present itself in different stages of severity.  In the case of Semenya she maintained a lot of her male characteristics, flat chest, narrow pelvis and some facial hair growth. She also has voice characteristics of a male, which is kind of deep,” he explained.

The gynecologist spoke about testicular feminization, women with “a blind pouch” a vagina, no uterus, no ovaries but they do have “streak undefended testes,” which are usually removed right around the age of puberty, about 13 years old.

“You don’t mistake them they look  female,” he declared.

The West Indian, a gynecologist for 35 years, who has delivered thousands of babies in New York, is a senior attending gynecologist at Long IslandCollegeHospital and BrooklynHospital.He too criticized the IAAF’s handling of the case.

“It is very unfair what the IAAF has done to Semanya after she has won the race to introduce these variables,” he argued. “She went through all of requirements of a female, met them and after she won they are raising questions about her victory and her gender. She didn’t use any performance drugs.

I feel strongly that the IAAF handled it in an amateurish fashion and they have treated her badly. She has been humiliated worldwide. Given the climate we are living in I think that some element of racism was involved. It has the smell of racism.”