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Related: About this forumThe astonishing village where little girls turn into boys aged 12
'In every way, Johnny is physically and biologically male. But, astonishingly he did not grow a penis until he hit puberty.
He is one of many children who live in Salinas, an isolated village in the southwestern Dominican Republic, who are seemingly born female, only to become men in their teenage years.
Although Johnnys story may seem extraordinary, cases of little girls turning into boys are so prevalent in the village that it is no longer considered abnormal. The children are simply referred to as the guevedoces which literally translates as penis at 12 >>>
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2016/03/12/the-astonishing-village-where-little-girls-turn-into-boys-aged-1/
guillaumeb
(42,641 posts)one would think that the boys affected would be sterile and/or suffer from other medical issues because of the higher body than air temperature.
Judging by the title, this sounded like a tabloid newspaper article.
elleng
(131,063 posts)'The rare genetic disorder occurs because of a missing enzyme which prevents the production of a specific form of the male sex hormone - dihydro-testosterone - in the womb.
All babies in the womb, whether male or female, have internal glands known as gonads and a small bump between their legs called a tubercle. At around eight weeks, male babies who carry the Y chromosome start to produce dihydro-testosterone in large amounts, which turns the tubercle into a penis. For females, the tubercle becomes a clitoris.
But some male babies are missing the enzyme 5-?-reductase which triggers the hormone surge, so they appear to be born female with no testes and what appears to be a vagina. It is not until puberty, when another huge surge of testosterone is produced, that the male reproductive organs emerge. What should have happened in the womb happens around 12 years later. Their voices deepen and they finally grow a penis.
For Johnny it happened at the age of seven. He claimed that he had never felt like a little girl and was far happier after he fully became a boy.
When I changed I was happy with my life, he said. . .
The guevedoces were first discovered by a Cornell University endocrinologist Dr Julianne Imperato in the 1970s who travelled to Dominican Republic after hearing strange rumours about girls turning into boys.
Further cases have since been seen in the Sambian villages of Papua New Guinea although the Sambians view the children as flawed males and they are often shunned, unlike the Dominicans who welcome the transformation with widespread celebration. . .
Around one in 90 children in Salinas are guevedoces and although they resemble sexually normal males, subtle differences do still exist in adulthood. Most have decreased amounts of facial hair and smaller prostate glands relative to the average male.
It is thought that the condition has persisted through generations because of the isolation of the villagers. Because the disorder is so widespread and accepted, the Dominican Republic now believes that there are three sexual categories, male, female, and pseudohermaphrodite.'
guillaumeb
(42,641 posts)One might also assume that this is more prevalent because of a small population of adults allowing these recessive genes to come forward.
shraby
(21,946 posts)magazines. Not tabloid stuff.
Title is hyped up it seems to me.
elleng
(131,063 posts)of Propecia.
guillaumeb
(42,641 posts)And the success of Trump.