The controversy surrounding the gender of South African teenage athlete Caster Semenya has prompted the question: what is a hermaphrodite?
The 18 year-old is facing a humiliating gender verification test after becoming a world champion with the fifth fastest 800m time in history at the World Athletics Championships in Berlin.
The International Association of Athletics Federations requested the gender test on Semenya three weeks ago after she ran a time of 1:56.72 at the African Junior Championship in Mauritius.
IAAF spokesman Nick Davies confirmed the tests were taking place, though he said the results would not be confirmed for several weeks.
It is understood that the tests are focusing on whether Semenya has a chromosomal disorder.
Mr Davies said it had not been suggested that Semenya was a man who had cheated by concealing his true sex, but that she could suffer from a genetic disorder which means she has both male and female chromosomes.
A hermaphrodite, or ‘intersex’ to use the term preferred by doctors and support groups, is someone with both male and female reproductive organs.
It is estimated that around 100,000 individuals in Britain can be described as 'intersex' because their sexual organs carry traits of both sexes. They may emotionally identify as female, male or inter-gender.
Unlike transgender individuals, who are usually born fully one sex or the other but feel they have been given the wrong body for their psychological gender, an intersexual's 'mixed gender' is a physical certainty.
Gender testing was introduced at the 1966 European Track and Field Championships and first used at the Olympics during the 1968 Mexico City games.
International Olympic Committee regulations require all athletes to compete under their gender at birth.
- Daily Telegraph