Ask Lemmy

I doubt any statistically significant study has been done since XY females are rare. In men the adrenal glands produce only 5-10% of total testosterone. In women the ovaries and adrenal glands make most of it, so I’d expect an XY woman with ovaries to have fairly normal levels. If she has no ovaries then I’d expect the level to be low. It’s about having the organs that do the production, not about the chromosomes.

That said, people vary A LOT so you’ll find an edge case for almost anything you look for.

What’s the context of your question?

She isn’t trans, she didn’t knock out her opponent, and you’ve been watching too much Fox News.

For starters, hermaphrodite isn't really a term that's used anymore.

With "true" hermaphroditism, which is now know as ovotesticular syndrome, a person is born with both testiclular and ovarian tissue in some configuration- organs containing a mix of both tissue, two complete sets of ovaries and testicles, one of each, etc. This is an incredibly rare condition, with only around 500 recorded cases ever.

There's also what used to be called "pseudohermaphrodism" and both, as well as several other conditions would now fall under the umbrella of terms like "intersex" or "DSD" (Disorders of Sex Development" which is a very broad and much more common category that covers a range of different conditions with different causes and presentations that mean that in some way their physical attributes don't align neatly with their biological sex. By some estimates, up to 1.7% of people could be considered intersex by some definition.

This wikipedia article has a list of a few dozen different conditions that could be considered intersex in the prevalence section.

There's also conditions that most wouldn't consider rise to the level of being intersex, but result in abnormal hormone levels and secondary sex characteristics (man-boobs, women growing facial hair, etc.)

Transgender is when a person does not identify with the gender they are assigned at birth. They may be intersex in some way, or they may have totally normal sexual development, but at birth based on the way their genitals looked, whether they were normal or abnormal, their parents essentially decided "you are a boy" or "you are a girl" and raised them in accordance with that, but at some point in their life they realized that they don't feel like that gender and identity as the other (or neither, or both in the case of non-binary gender identities)

There's one organization that claims to have tested her and found that she has XY chromosomes. That organization has a bit of a shifty record though and while it's certainly a possibility, I don't trust them enough to consider it settled.

But even if she does have a y chromosome, there's a handful of conditions that a genotypically male could be in all obvious ways phenotypically female, and you would never know unless you did genetic testing or did some medical imaging on their urogenital systems that wouldn't give them any particular competitive edge. If they have, for example, someone with complete androgen insensitivity syndrome would have XY chromosomes, but in all ways appear female, and their body is essentially immune to testosterone so they wouldn't have any competitive edge.

She's competing at some of the highest levels of female boxing, but she is competing she's not absolutely dominating the sport, she's lost matches, she's not a shoe-in for the gold medal.

We have no reason to think she's trans, she's never expressed anything to that effect, though even if she did, her options to express that, let alone seek gender affirming treatment, would likely be limited since Algeria isn't exactly the most LGBTQ friendly country (putting it mildly)

She may or may not be intersex in some fashion, like I said I don't exactly trust the one source that claims to have tested her. The possibility exists, but I'm not convinced until/unless those results are corroborated by a more trustworthy organization. And if she does turn out to be intersex, what of it? Which gender should someone compete as if they don't neatly fit into the traditional gender binary? She identifies as female and she's competitive in the female competition, why not allow her to compete there?

Born female. Identified her entire life as female. Always competed as female.

I've not checked, I believe you're asking about the Olympic boxer?

My best understanding is she's intersex with maybe a chromosome disorder