Caster Semenya of South Africa won the world title in women's 800 metres, a gold that set off a controversy over how gender should be determined. Caster Semenya of South Africa won the world title in women's 800 metres, a gold that set off a controversy over how gender should be determined. (Stu Foster/Getty Images)

World track and field's governing body will start next week to examine how to determine gender in an athletics context, an initiative spurred by the case of 800-metre world champion Caster Semenya.

The medical commission of the International Association of Athletics Federations will begin the meetings on Friday and could take a year to deliver a definition.

The association's judicial commission will also be asked to consider future regulations, general secretary Pierre Weiss said Saturday in Birmingham, England.

"We are obliged to react," Weiss told The Associated Press. "It would have been better if we had been prepared to, but we were not prepared. We will get a reply in the next 12 months. I don't expect anything to come out before.

He said he'd asked colleagues at International Olympic Committee meetings in Copenhagen if they had a definition and no one did.

"But nobody [else] has had the problem so far," said Weiss, who expects the Olympic committee's medical commission will consider the issue in November in Lausanne.

The most common cause of sexual ambiguity is congenital adrenal hyperplasia, an endocrine disorder in which the adrenal glands produce abnormally high levels of hormones.

By the time Semenya won the 800 metres at the Berlin world championships in August, questions about the 18-year-old South African's gender had been raised because of stunning improvements in her times and her muscular build and deep voice.

Before the final, the IAAF announced it had ordered gender tests.

The association refused to confirm or deny Australian media reports that Semenya has both male and female characteristics. It said it is reviewing test results and will issue a decision in November on whether she will be allowed to compete in women's events.

"They are being analyzed worldwide by experts," Weiss said. "We will promote the outcome of this case as soon as it is known."