1) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6188775.stm reads:
"Santhi was subjected to a gender test in Doha and we have received the
report which says she failed the test," said Manmohan Singh, chairman of
the Indian Olympic Association's Medical Commission.
Soundararajan is refusing to comment. "I was not informed about the test
results and I don't know much on that. I do not want to talk about it,"
she told journalists.
...
KP Mohan, a sports journalist, said athletes were usually examined by a
team of doctors, including a gynaecologist, endocrinologist and
psychologist, and put through physical and clinical examinations during a
gender test.
2) http://tinyurl.com/yxxuu7 reads:
[G]enetic tests in place in sport might unfairly single out some women as
men, IOC medical commission chairman Dr Arne Ljungquist [said].
...
The gender verification tests are based on chromosomes and sometimes a
sexual disorder results in the presence of male chromosomes in a female.
The athlete would then present male-like features, though without gaining
any undue advantage.
...
The IOC only allows the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) technique to
determine chromosomal patterns, a test that was reportedly not done on
Santhi.
...
AIS individuals are genetically male, will have 46,XY chromosomal (male)
pattern, may have male or female genitalia or predominantly male or female
genitalia, but will not have a uterus. Medically, if such individuals
compete against women, they will have no unfair advantage.
3) The Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) is used for duplicating DNA so labs
have a larger sample to perform tests on. I assume (but am not sure) the
sample is examined to find the X and Y chromosomes. Females have two X
chromosomes and males have one X and one Y.
It is possible for a human to be born with extra chromosomes. eg two X
and one Y is called "Klinefelter's syndrome". In cases of XXX, XXY, XYY,
or YYY there are a few known differences from the more common XX and XY
humans (eg height). See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XYY_syndrome for
more information.
2 comments:
I removed this Snippet of text by Rantinator when I fixed the blogger error that seems to plague email submission.
I [Rantinator] have found that some posts fail to show up. It happens when I re-submit
the post. The odd thing is when I submit the post with this error message
at the top the post goes through. That's why you see it in a bunch of the
posts I make. :(
I learned about genetic disorders like these in some of my anthropology courses. Some people seem to think that Joan of Arc may have had a Y chromosome due to some medical anomalies like a lack of body hair and normal menstrual cycles. Maybe they are just pissed cuz they don't believe a women can be an ass-kicker!
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