How Sex Works: Why We Look, Smell, Taste, Feel, and Act the Way We Do by Sharon Moalem

Author:Sharon Moalem [Moalem, Sharon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science, Life Sciences, Biology
ISBN: 9780061479663
Google: LLxmFjpA5C4C
Amazon: 0061479667
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2009-04-28T05:00:00+00:00

conditions in all three categories in this chapter.

As medical science has become more sensitive to and

h o w s e x w o r k s

❘ 1 4 3

thoughtful about these conditions, the language used to dis-

cuss them has evolved as well, moving somewhat away from

older terms, like hermaphrodite that are not particularly de-

scriptive from a medical perspective and have become laden

with pejorative connotation. At the 2005 Intersex Consensus

Meeting, attendees agreed to adopt the term disorder of sexual

development, or DSD, to cover the wide range of disorders that

prevent an individual from being identified as typically male

or typically female. The whole idea behind moving toward a

clinical-sounding phrase was exactly that—to move toward a

more scientific approach. Along those lines, the term intersex

itself has given way for some to DSD as well, although groups

like ISNA haven’t changed their names. Disagreement within

the intersex community still exists about whether the name

change is helpful. Cheryl Chase, executive director of ISNA,

told Scientifi c American it’s her hope that the name change will

encourage doctors to see DSDs as lifelong medical conditions.

“Now that we’ve accomplished the name change, culture can

accomplish a little magic for us.”

I N D E C E M B E R 2 0 0 6 , Santhi Soundarajan’s career as an

elite athlete was about to really hit its stride. She had just

won the silver medal in the women’s 800-meter race at the

Asian Games in Doha, Qatar, and seemed destined for the

2008 Olympic Games in China. And then, just hours be-

fore she was supposed to be honored, her silver medal was

taken from her, and she was barred from further competition

as a member of the Indian team by the Athletics Federa-

tion of India. For doping? Some other form of cheating? No.

144 ❘ S h a r o n

M o a l e m

She failed a sex test. Officials wouldn’t say exactly what the

tests showed, but according to the online science magazine

Inkling, some anonymous official told the Associated Press

that Soundarajan had “more Y chromosomes than allowed.”

Of course, one Y chromosome is all it usually takes to make

someone genetically male. Here’s the thing, though: Soun-

darajan had apparently passed sex exams many times before.

So what happened?

The exact nature of Soundarajan’s prior tests and the fi nd-

ings of the test that ultimately disqualified her aren’t publicly

known, but we can hazard a few good guesses. First of all,

it’s quite possible that Soundarajan’s initial exams were sim-

ply physical inspections of her genitals, and that she possesses

genitals that look sufficiently female to pass such a test. Fears

of men masquerading as women in athletic competition are

not unfounded, although as far as anyone knows, they are ex-

tremely rare. One of the few times it’s actually thought to have

occurred was during the 1936 Berlin Games when German

Hermann Ratjen competed as Dora in the high jump. Funny

thing is, he failed to place.

Soundarajan wouldn’t be the first athlete to pass a sex test

and later run into trouble because of a genetic analysis of chro-

mosome makeup that discovered a Y chromosome. The story

of Spanish hurdler Maria José Martinez-Patiño became well

known when she ran into problems in 1985 with the discovery

that she carried a Y chromosome.

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