A medical report accessed by French journalist Dfaffar At Aoudia revealed Algerian boxer Imane Khelif's gender. The screenshot of the report posted by the French journalist on LeCorrespondant revealed that "Khelif is impacted by 5-alpha reductase deficiency, a disorder of sex development that is only found in biological males." The report further goes on and reads that "male babies impacted by 5-alpha reductase deficiency are often incorrectly assigned female due to the presence of deformed genitalia that sometimes takes on the appearance of 'blind vaginal pouch'.
" We Broke Down 5-alpha Reductase Deficiency For You 5-alpha reductase deficiency (5-ARD disorder of sex development (DSD)) is a genetic disorder of an enzyme (a protein) called 5-alpha reductase that is absent or defective in males. This enzyme converts the male hormone testosterone to its more potent form called dihydrotestosterone. It plays an important role in helping with the development of male external genitalia in the fetus.
At a very early stage in fetal life, in males and females, sex organs and external genitalia are undifferentiated and they also look identical. However, in the first few months, the testicles in the male fetus start producing testosterone and 10% of it is converted into dihydrotestosterone. This is used in the making of genital skin.
Over time the levels of dihydrotestosterone rise and the genitalia starts to differentiate between male and female. When the baby is in the fetus, the genita.