Themba Hadebe / AP

World 800-meter champion Caster Semenya is surrounded by local children at her welcome home celebration at the Masehlong village in Moletjie, South Africa.

There is a wide variety of these types of genetic gender disorders. Individually they are rare, but put all together they are not uncommon, Genel and Simpson said.

“There’s a whole range of disorders there,” Genel said. “The unfortunate thing about this particular case is that it’s being played out in the bright lights of the international media.”

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.

“I pity her because of the way she found out,” said Fiona Dube, a 22-year-old waitress. “I think her privacy has been invaded. Now the whole world knows. It is not like she chose to be that way.”

The IAAF has said Semenya probably would keep her medal because the case was not a doping matter.

Even South African President Jacob Zuma weighed in, saying the media have exploited Semenya.

“I don’t think we should play around with people’s lives and their privacy,” Zuma said. He said that the reports violate principles of respect and privacy and that doctor and patient confidentiality should be upheld.

In the northern South African village of Ga-Masehlong, where Semenya was raised, 18-year-old Mapula Phano said he is upset, as are many of the runner’s former neighbors.

“Caster is a woman. I don’t like having to hear people from outside saying otherwise. Here in our village it doesn’t sit well with us,” Phano said. “The stuff they have been saying about her could destroy her confidence.”

Erina Langa, a neighbor of Semenya’s grandmother, said she has been impressed by how Semenya has behaved in the last few, difficult weeks.

“She is very, very, very brave,” Langa said. “She’s like her grandmother, she’s a tough lady. Anything that she wants, she can do it. She trusts herself.”