Girls in a remote Caribbean village are becoming boys when they hit puberty due to a rare genetic disorder. One in 90 children born in Salinas in the Dominican Republic grow a penis in a natural transformation from female to male.
Known as the guevedoces, which translates as penis at 12, these youngsters are referred to in medical terms as “pseudohermaphrodite”.
It is so common to be a pseudohermaphrodite in Salinas that it is accepted as a third sex, alongside male and female. The phenomenon is explored in a new BBC2 series called Countdown to Life – the Extraordinary Making of You. Presenters meet Johnny, 24, who is physically and biologically male but was once known as Felicitia.
As a child, he did not have a penis and was brought up as a girl. He said: “I remember I used to wear a little red dress. I was born at home instead of in a hospital. They didn’t know what sex I was. “I went to school and I used to wear my skirt. I never liked to dress as a girl. When they bought me girls toys I never bothered playing with them. All I wanted to do was play with the boys.”
The rare genetic disorder is caused by a missing enzyme which prevents the production of the male sex hormone dihydro-testosterone in the womb. It creates what looks like a baby girl on birth. But at puberty, when testosterone flows, their voices break and they grow a male sexual reproductive organ that they become recognised as male.
BBC presenter Dr Michael Mosley said: “Guevedoces are also sometimes called ‘machihembras’ meaning ‘first a woman, then a man.’ “When they’re born they look like girls with no testes and what appears to be a vagina. “It is only when they near puberty that the penis grows and testicles descend.”
-Vanguard
Strange thing made stranger...
ReplyDeleteYour comment will be visible after approval.
Na wa..o,what won't I hear????
DeleteThe world is indeed a really strange place.
DeleteEwww, bv Caribbean princess check urself please, when did u grow ur own? @ 13?
DeleteHahahhahahaha Diva u are just one crazy babe!
DeleteCall me joor.
@ Blessing,I think we have heard it all now o.
Pictures or adonbilivit!
DeleteBullocks!
This is serious mehn! I wish this is happening somewhere in Nigeria, e for make plenty sense.
ReplyDeleteHoooooneey!!! In Nigeria? Hian!
DeleteExplain how it would make sense, i hate when beautiful girls make dumb comment
DeleteHahahahaha maka why now
DeleteHenry Eze please do yourself the favour and run along whenever you come across my comment. Inugo? Ewu payan like you.
DeleteGpharm I sight you buddy.
End time things.
ReplyDeleteNo,not end times.
DeleteJust Pseudohaemophroditism
I hear u
DeleteNa wa o.
ReplyDeleteHappy sunday everyone.
Same to u hun
DeleteSame to you
DeleteSame here hun!
DeleteWhat the F?!
ReplyDeleteWonders!!!!!just when you think you have heard it all, another bombshell drops.
ReplyDeleteGod will help us.
And that's why sometimes it's best to refrain from judging people about their sexual preference, cos u just don't know!!! World is too deep, I say that over and over again. Only the creator of this world knows it all, so let's leave d judgement to him
DeleteWould have been better for u if u were born here bruce/caitlyn jenner
DeleteStrange. Maybe there is something they are eating that change their sex at puberty.
ReplyDeletePlease somebody help, I can't comment on mobile version except web version and am using a phone to browse
Errm. Use Uc Browser or Chrome or firefox on your mobile phone. I'm sure you are using Opera Mini.
DeleteCheck ur browser setting
DeleteGoogle Chrome browser is the answer.
DeletePictures
ReplyDeleteFor real????
ReplyDeleteWtf!
ReplyDeleteSo many strange things happening
in the world. .
Unbelievable
Strange but we learn everyday.
ReplyDeleteHian!
ReplyDeleteHmmm....
ReplyDeleteNo picture ni?
ReplyDeleteOk nah.
ReplyDeleteTrying to give an explanation to their transition.
Mmmmmh wonders. Does it grow to b d normal size average Penis? ?? Just asking
ReplyDeleteI keep saying it, one can be born gay but people try hard to deny it. Stop lookin at it from the Christian and bible angle, during those times, these people were shunned cos they don't have an explanation for what they are. Being gay(i mean the real ones oo not these ones that just want to experiment cos of pleasure seeking) is from the gene.. it's a genetic something that will be as a result of a missing or excess particular enzyme, it's science, it's evolution. It's real. Some of these people are actually trapped in a different body. When they are small and in nursery, they unconsciously play with their real sex, stop saying they learned to be gay, that's wrong. At that age there is nothing to learn.
ReplyDeleteI know some will come and start quoting bible but I'm just saying, when the bible was written, mayb there was no explanation for it, again there are so many things not written in the bible so mayb that is one of them. My mantra is leave them alone. Let them be. Let it be between them and God, he created them too, don't kill them or maim them in the name of the father.
Keep walking away from the truth
DeleteOne can be born gay? Mtchewww
DeleteShow your faceless face hun. Only then can we take you seriously...
DeleteBut these people might not be gay.
DeleteJohnny as a male can still love girls.
No hun, you're missing the point.
DeleteThis isn't about being gay. This is about boys whose sexual organs don't manifest till they hit puberty.
They've always been boys, its just a missing enzyme that's critical to their development that's missing and makes their parts look female at birth.
And about the gay issue, I'd have agreed with you of not for the fact that almost all gays admit to have been sexually molested by a man at some point when they were younger. There's definitely a connection between that and their sexual orientation.
U wasted ur time writing this long shiiiiiu, pls were is the sense in ur epistle
DeleteWollup Wollup.....The beautiful thing about Science is that it is based on evidence, hardcore truth...science doesn't thrive on hypothesis and that is what uve just stated "it is a genetic SOMETHING that will be as a result of a missing or excess particular enzyme".......there's a chance you are right,but until a particular named gene mutation is tied to homosexuality,there's no SCIENTIFIC proof so stop trying to stuff it down our guts....Thanks maa'm/sire
DeleteNo! U missed d point..one is not "born gay" per se. But yes some people are born with genes that are messed up. Men born with more female genes and vice versa, hermaphrodites et al. And their actions are perceived as gay, cos a lot of us have a one track mind! If anything is outside that track den d brain is unable to comprehend.
DeleteThe things we read everyday.
ReplyDeleteWow... This is a first... Jesus is Lord
ReplyDeleteWonders shall neva cease!!!
ReplyDeleteTor,that's strange
ReplyDeleteNa wa o
ReplyDeleteJust fainted,somebody please call the paramedics
ReplyDeleteSounds weird
ReplyDeleteJesus is Lord......
ReplyDeleteNkan beeeee!......
ReplyDeleteWots news again in dis world?
I beg Aunty SDK dis 1 pass me ooooo.
ReplyDeleteMiracle!
ReplyDeleteNothing we no go hear
ReplyDeleteAnother case for the LGBTcommunity to use in defending their sexuality.
ReplyDeleteWetin concern me sha
This is very strange. Abeg they should takes those kids for some serious medical check-up or bring them to naija for deliverance. They will turn back to girls by force.
ReplyDeleteWow. I had an opportunity to see a haemophrodite during medical school.#chiq#
ReplyDelete