Olympics! Should men compete against women?

Definitions[edit]

Model Hanne Gaby Odielephotographed by Ed Kavishe for Fashionwirepress. Odiele disclosed that she has the intersex trait androgen insensitivity syndrome in 2017

According to the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights:

Intersex people are born with sex characteristics (including genitals, gonads and chromosome patterns) that do not fit typical binary notions of male or female bodies.

Intersex is an umbrella term used to describe a wide range of natural bodily variations. In some cases, intersex traits are visible at birth while in others, they are not apparent until puberty. Some chromosomal intersex variations may not be physically apparent at all.^[2]

In biological terms, sex may be determined by a number of factors present at birth, including:^[30]

• the number and type of sex chromosomes;
• the type of gonads—ovaries or testicles;
• the sex hormones;
• the internal reproductive anatomy (such as the uterus in females); and
• the external genitalia.

People whose characteristics are not either all typically male or all typically female at birth are intersex.^[31]

Some intersex traits are not always visible at birth; some babies may be born with ambiguous genitals, while others may have ambiguous internal organs (testes and ovaries). Others will not become aware that they are intersex unless they receive genetic testing, because it does not manifest in their phenotype.