PRETORIA, South Africa (AP):

Caster Semenya had heard the taunts and whispers, that she was different from other girls. Now the most intimate details of her anatomy are headline news, and there is worry about how the 18-year-old runner from a poor South African village will handle it all.

The Sydney Daily Telegraph and the Sydney Morning Herald reported yesterday that gender tests show the world champion athlete has both male and female characteristics, but no ovaries or uterus, and has internal testes that produce large amounts of testosterone.

final decision

The International Association of Athletics Federations, which ordered the gender tests, refused to confirm or deny the reports. In a statement, the IAAF said it is reviewing the test results and will issue a final decision in November.

South African Sports Minister Makhenkesi Stofile expressed horror at the handling of the affair and insisted Caster is female.

"We think her human rights have been violated and her privacy invaded," Stofile said, adding that Semenya should be given legal advice and counselling.

out of sight

Semenya dropped out of sight yesterday. The South African Press Association quoted her coach, Michael Seme, as saying she would not take part in a 4,000-metre race at the South African Cross Country Championships in Pretoria today because she was "not feeling well." Semenya had said earlier in the week that she would run.

Semenya won the 800-metre race at the world championships in Berlin on August 19 by 2.45 seconds in a world-record 1 minute, 55.45 seconds. Even before that, though, her dramatic improvement in times, muscular build and deep voice had prompted speculation about her gender.

The international federation had asked South African track and field authorities to conduct the gender verification test after she posted a world-leading time of 1:56.72 at the African junior championships in July.

Some people may have the physical characteristics of both genders, a chromosomal disorder, or simply have ambiguous features. The condition is generally referred to as a sexual development disorder, and sometimes intersexuality. An older term for someone with both male and female organs is hermaphrodite.

Dr John Park, a paediatric urologist at the University of Michigan, said a likely scenario is a condition called androgen insensitivity syndrome. The person is genetically male but doesn't develop external male genitals and appears to be female, or the person can have both male and female physical characteristics.

The disorder is found at birth in the case of abnormal genitals. But often it isn't diagnosed until puberty, Park said. The teen doesn't menstruate because there is no uterus.

In those cases, at birth "they look completely like a girl. There is no ambiguity whatsoever," Park said.

crazy

Semenya's father, Jacob, expressed anger when contacted, saying people who insinuate his daughter is not a woman "are sick. They are crazy."

South Africans, who have embraced Semenya as "our golden girl," took offense at the way the case has been handled.

"It shouldn't have been made public because the girl is 18 years old. ... How is she going to handle that? She may think of killing herself. She has lived her whole life as a woman and now she is told she is a bit of both," said Richard Redman, 25, a film student in Johannesburg.