Intersex Human Rights Australia

The media reporting on this story make much of the late Ms Worrall having been born with Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia, a natural biological variation that can underlie being intersex. So much is made of her CAH that it almost seems as if this variation is being blamed for her death and for the murder of her sister Susan.

The Daily Telegraph reports that:

Worrall, who had long suffered from a genetic disorder that affects the adrenal glands, weighed 133kg at the time of her death, a side-effect of medications she was taking.

The condition, congenital adrenal hyperplasia, was found to have been a contributing factor to the stabbing death of her sister Susan in 2008.

702 ABC Sydney reports:

An autopsy found Worrall died from a pulmonary embolism – a blood clot in her lungs – with obesity as a secondary cause.

Treatment for a rare hormonal condition – congenital adrenal hyperplasia – contributed to Worrall’s weight issues….

He [Deputy State Coroner Scott Mitchell… Ed.] found the disorder along with the medication used to treat it lead to the blood clot that killed Worrall….

Worrall had been sentenced to at least four years in jail for killing her sister, after prosecutors accepted a guilty plea to manslaughter due to mental illness.

The court then heard Worrall had not been taking her medication when she stabbed her sister dozens of times.

A “guilty plea to manslaughter due to mental illness”. Neither CAH, higher than average levels of testosterone or being intersex are mental illness. We wonder what actual mental illness was cited in the murder trial as being the causative factor.