Gender Crisis

Human DNA consist of 2 pairs of chromosomes, each inherited from either one of the parents to make it up to 46 chromosomes in total. 44 of those were autosomal chromosomes and the other 2 were sex chromosomes with a combination of either 2 X chromosomes or 1 X and 1 Y.

This is a human karyotype for a male, where you can notice that it consist of one X and one Y chromosome respectively.

It is very important that after each stage of meiosis that the gametic cell in female and male consist of the normal number of chromosomes, that is 22 + 1. However due to non-dysjunction that might happen in the process of meiosis, it may cause unequal amount of chromosomes ended up in different resutling gamettes. Thus now we could easily observe serveral well understood phenotypic expression of these resulting genetic information that had been inherited in some individuals. Klinefelter syndrome and Turner syndrome are 2 of the more well known phenotype that was caused by non-dysjunction.

The left is the karyotype for a female with turner syndrome whereas the right is the karyotype for a male with Klinefelter syndrome.

Karyotype for a male with Klinefelter syndrome

The effect of these mutations are shown on the phenotype, both resulting in non-fertile offspring. Now here is the problem. Do we determine the gender of a particular individual depend solely on the chromosomes presence? Or do we have to consider the secondary sexual characteristics as well as the hormonal level that are presence in the particular individual? 

Throughout the history of Olympics, there were many cases where an athelete was stripped of the medals due to failure in the gender test. One of the most controversial case happened at the 2006 Asian Games. Santhi Soundarajan was a middle distance running silver medalist, but was later stripped off her medal due to her failure in the gender test that were carried out by a gynecologist, a geneticist, an endocrinologist, a psycologist, and an internal medicine specialist. They concluded the reason of Santhi Soundarajan falling the gender test was that she does not possess the sexual charateristics of a women. Media later had reported that she might be suffering from Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome (AIS) where the individual would have chromosome X and Y but the body would not respond to androgen, resulting in a female phenotype but does not posses ovaries.

Had this enlighten you?

XY does not necessary to be male. Sexual determination had been involved vastly in the sports arena to maintain the equality in competition, however in Santhi's case, she was unfortunate to be true because several female that were tested containing Y chromosome were allowed to compete in the 1996 Alanta Olympics.

Now since whether you are a male or female does not only lies on whether you have Y or X chromosome, let me ask you a question, 

Are you male or female?

References:

1. Matt Stopera, The 10 Most Shocking Olympic Gender Scandal [online], Available at http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/the-10-most-shocking-olympic-gender-scandals [Accessed 23rd Oct 2010]
2. Murdoch Children's Medical Research Institute, Human Karyotype, [image online], Available at http://www.biotechnologyonline.gov.au/popups/img_karyotype.html [Accessed 23rd Oct 2010]
3. Seals Genetics, Prince of Wales Hospital, Randwick, Karyotype for Klinefelter's syndrome,  [image online], Available at http://www.genetics.com.au/factsheet/fs31.asp [Accessed 23rd Oct 2010]
4. Clinical Tools, Inc., Karyotype for Turner's syndrome,  [image online], Available at http://www.le.ac.uk/ge/genie/vgec/hp/chromabnormal.html [Accessed 23rd Oct 2010]
5. Katie Thomas, The New York Times, A lab is set to test the gender of some female atheletes, [online], Available at http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/30/sports/olympics/30gender.html?scp=1&sq=santhi%20soundarajan&st=cse [Accessed 23rd Oct 2010]
6. Emine Sanar, The Guardian, The gender trap, [online], Available at http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2008/jul/30/olympicgames2008.gender%20The%20gender%20trap [Accessed 23rd Oct 2010]