As South African running sensation Caster Semenya dropped out of sight Friday following reports that she has hidden male sex organs, her father expressed outrage and confusion -- emotions very often felt by families of intersex children, according to one local expert.

``This is an extremely difficult -- you could say traumatic -- experience for parents when they have a child with this kind of problem,'' said Dr. Gary D. Berkovitz, chief of pediatric endocrinology at the University of Miami's medical school.

``At birth, the first thing parents want to know other than if it's a healthy baby, they want to know if it's a boy or if it's a girl. In some situations, very rarely, it's not possible to tell.''

Semenya's father, Jacob, angrily said that people ``are sick, they are crazy'' for insinuating his 18-year-old daughter is not a woman.

Semenya, of a poor village in South Africa, didn't know she had internal testes until after gender testing was performed, according to Australian newspaper reports.

The International Association of Athletics Federations, which ordered the testing, refused to confirm or deny the reports in The Sydney Daily Telegraph and The Sydney Morning Herald that Semenya has internal testes that produce large amounts of testosterone, and no ovaries.

The IAAF said it is reviewing the test results on the runner and will not issue a final decision until November.

South African Sports Minister Makhenkesi Stofile expressed his horror at the handling of the affair and insisted Caster, who won the 800-meter race at the world championships in Berlin last month, is female.

``We think her human rights have been violated and her privacy invaded,'' Stofile said. ``I don't know why she is being subjected to this.''

The South African Press Association quoted her coach, Michael Seme, as saying she would not take part in a women's 4,000-meter race at the South African Cross Country Championships in Pretoria on Saturday because she was ``not feeling well.'' Seme had said earlier in the week that she would run.

Semenya burst onto the scene by posting a world-leading time of 1 minute, 56.72 seconds at the African junior championships, and in July, the international federation asked South African track and field authorities to do a gender verification test.

Semenya won the 800 in Berlin on Aug. 19 by 2.45 seconds in a world-record 1:55.45, but her dramatic improvement, muscular build and deep voice sparked speculation about her gender.

In the past, intersex people were called hermaphrodites. ``We don't use that anymore,'' Berkovitz said, noting that the phrase doesn't fully describe the condition.

People who are intersex often have physical characteristics of the opposite sex. A girl might be born with testes or a greatly enlarged clitoris that resembles a penis; a boy could have hidden female characteristics such as a misplaced urethra or, less commonly, a uterus, said Berkovitz.

There are many complicated reasons why a child might be intersex: too many hormones or two few; perhaps a genetic imbalance of chromosomes that help determine a baby's gender.

Doctors don't routinely screen babies for these imbalances. Usually, a parent notices something unusual.

``Looking at the genitalia. That's the first clue,'' said Berkovitz, who has treated intersex children since 1980.

In girls, it could be a larger-than-expected clitoris. Boys might have hidden testicles.

``In almost all the cases, the genitalia are normal and that what the families are seeing are a variance of normal and of no concern,'' Berkovitz said. ``However, once in a while, perhaps several times a year, we do indeed encounter a child where there is a problem.''

Doctors then investigate whether the problems are hormonal. Surgery often is performed, usually followed by hormone treatments, said Berkovitz.

Treating an intersex child ``requires hours and hours of discussion and counseling'' for the family, he said.

Miami sexologist Dr. Marilyn Volker has often worked with intersex kids and their parents.

``I always ask people who are pregnant, `Are you having a boy, a girl or an intersexual?' '' Volker said. ``They're pretty shocked.''

Approximately one in 1,000 babies have surgery to ``normalize'' the appearance of their genitals, according to the Intersex Society of America.

People often mistakenly confuse intersex with being gay or transgender, Volker said.

``That runner could be heterosexual, homosexual or bisexual,'' she said. ``Asexual could be in there, as well.''

This report was supplemented with material from the AP.

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