I just read this story in the NY Times:
http://olympics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/27/lab-ready-for-s...
It has me wondering about how they're going to deal with people who never knew they were intersexed before now. As some of you may know, a condition called CAIS (Complete Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome) makes fetuses with XY chromosomes develop as apparent females. This is a condition that's often never diagnosed until late in puberty, when the reason for failure to begin menses is investigated. With young female gymnasts being so young these days, one could barely what the crushing psychological effect will be of them suddenly being subjected to this unexpected discovery, should it occur.
What bugs me about this article the most is the comments at the end. No one but no one is worrying about the potential intersexed victims of this.
Comments
New comments, perhaps?
I saw several comments at the end talking about various intersex conditions.
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
Could Be
I was chatting with someone in a chatroom for a while after reading the article, and by the time I got around to posting the blog, it was quite a bit later.
At the same time, though, after reading the first few screens of responses, I was so repulsed, I think I gave up reading. The response by RR at around 6:20 was excellent, basically covering the points I would have wished to make. Still, many of the posters posting after that never took that into account.
Considerations for the person?
I doubt very seriously they've ever thought about that issue. They're just taking the INTENTIONAL enhancement of abilities by steroids and other drugs one step further.
A potential side effect is that MORE people (in the richer countries anyway) will get tested earlier for these conditions, and they'll be discovered much earlier... Potentially allowing for appropriate actions to be taken BY the individuals and their families... It would be nice if this ended up being a silver lining...
Annette
Honestly
I would have thought that many countries, at least the more affluent ones, would have already tested all their people routinely. So there'd be no surprises there. The Third World countries, on the other hand might, not be so fortunate.
KJT
"Being a girl is wonderful and to torture someone into that would be like the exact opposite of what it's like. I don’t know how anyone could act that way." College Girl - poetheather
“When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn’t become a king. The palace becomes a circus.” - Turkish Proverb
I'm a bit worried
Zoe Brain's post was excellent and, if others read it and understood it, they would realise that the matter isn't as simple as they think. The human body is probably the most complex and diverse machine on the planet and, like most machines, no one knows everything about it. It's still throwing up surprises after all this time.
All we can hope is for common sense to prevail and for those who deliberately cheat to be caught and punished. If that can be done without the whole thing descending into a sordid, degrading mess that spells the end of genuine international sport, so much the better.
Susie