Typically, when a person changes gender they make a conscious choice to do so, but not in the unusual case of the “Guevedoces”, a group of children who live in the Dominican Republic and appear to start out life as girls before growing a penis during puberty.
This condition affects one out of every 90 boys in the area, Dr. Michael Mosley, who presented a documentary on the condition that aired Monday night in the UK, wrote in a companion story for the Telegraph. At birth, these boys are born with no testes and what appears to be a vagina, but when they near puberty, their penis grows and testicles descend, he explained.
The children are called “Guevedoces”, which literally translates to “penis at twelve”, as well as by the alternate name “machihembras”, meaning “first a woman, then a man.” As unusual as the transition may sound, Dr. Mosley said that once it happens, the boys are able to live out normal lives as men, although they tend to have small prostates and other less-developed features.
In his article, he also documented the case of Johnny, who was previously known as Felicita and lived as a girl until he began to change at the age of seven. Now an adult, Johnny said that he had stated wanting to play with boys and toy guns instead of girls, adding that he had been teased at school because “it is hard to imagine a girl that is now is a boy.”
What causes this to happen?
Among the first scientists to investigate the unusual transformation taking place in this part of the world was a Cornell University endocrinologist named Dr. Julianne Imperato, who started traveling to the affected part of the Dominican Republic four decades ago after hearing rumors of girls changing into boys.
What Dr. Imperato eventually discovered is that Guavadoces lack male genitalia at birth because they deficient in 5-α-reductase, an enzyme which converts testosterone into dihydro-testosterone. Thus, they appear to be female when they are born, but around the time puberty hits, their bodies produce another surge of testosterone, causing the development of a penis and testes.
Dr. Imperato’s research was eventually picked up by US pharmaceutical company Merck, which used it to developed a drug known as finasteride that which blocks the action of 5-α-reductase. It is now used to treat enlarged prostate and male pattern baldness throughout the world, according to Dr. Mosley.
“In addition to the Dominican Republic, cases of 5-alpha reductase deficiency have been found in Papua New Guinea, Turkey and Egypt,” Live Science reported. The website added that these boys are not technically classified as transgender because they identify with their biological sex, despite being raised as girls at an early age.
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Feature Image: Thinkstock
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