Gender Discrepancies: How Sure are You of Your Gender?

If you were asked how you knew you were a male or a female, what would have been your answer?  Is it by your looks, by the external genitals? Whatever your answer might be, scientists may not share your view. You may have to get to the laboratory to convince the world that you are either male or female.

With the controversy that trailed the recent world record achieved by South African athlete in the 800m women to whether she is really a female, it has really opened a Pandora’s Box to what really is the basis for sex determination. She has to go through series of tests which includes physical evaluation, reports from gynaecologists, psychologists, endocrinologists, an internal medicine specialist and an expert on gender to prove to the world that she is a female and if not she loses her world title. You may want to ask what happens if the different tests give varying results.

A male is believed to genetically have XY chromosomes while a female has XX chromosomes but is there really a clear cut demarcation between the two? There are a lot of ‘’in-betweens’’ but are they defects or are they just nature’s creativity?

In his book Between XX and XY: The Myth of Two Sexes, Gerald N. Callahan does not share the idea of categorising gender between male and female. He states that every year in the United States, more than two thousand children are born with an intersex condition or disorder of sex development. He went ahead to ask what makes someone a boy or a girl? Is it external genitalia, chromosomes, DNA, environment, or some combination of these factors? Not even doctors or scientists are entirely clear. He says what is clear is that sex is not an either-or proposition: not girl/boy, XX/XY, switching between two poles like an on-off switch on a radio. Rather, sex is like the bass and treble knobs on that radio. Between XX and XY provides a fascinating look at the science of sex and what makes people male or female. There are people born XXY, XXXY, or XXXXY, or with any number of variations in X or Y chromosomes, but those who do not fit into society’s preconceived notions about sex often face a difficult path in life. Dr. Callahan explores why humans are so attached to the idea of two sexes, and examines our obsession with sex and sexual intercourse through the ages.