Like fingerprints, genitalia are unique from person to person, including those who are intersex. Someone with an intersex condition could have external genitalia that are ambiguous or their genitalia might be different from their genetic sex. They could have female genitalia on the outside but be genetically male, they may have both testes and ovaries, or they may have some other combination wh...

Like fingerprints, genitalia are unique from person to person, including those who are intersex. Someone with an intersex condition could have external genitalia that are ambiguous or their genitalia might be different from their genetic sex. They could have female genitalia on the outside but be genetically male, they may have both testes and ovaries, or they may have some other combination wh...

Like fingerprints, genitalia are unique from person to person, including those who are intersex. Someone with an intersex condition could have external genitalia that are ambiguous or their genitalia might be different from their genetic sex. They could have female genitalia on the outside but be genetically male, they may have both testes and ovaries, or they may have some other combination wh...

Like fingerprints, genitalia are unique from person to person, including those who are intersex. Someone with an intersex condition could have external genitalia that are ambiguous or their genitalia might be different from their genetic sex. They could have female genitalia on the outside but be genetically male, they may have both testes and ovaries, or they may have some other combination wh...

Like fingerprints, genitalia are unique from person to person, including those who are intersex. Someone with an intersex condition could have external genitalia that are ambiguous or their genitalia might be different from their genetic sex. They could have female genitalia on the outside but be genetically male, they may have both testes and ovaries, or they may have some other combination wh...

Intersex disorders are rare congenital malformations with over 80% being diagnosed with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH). It can be challenging to determine the correct gender at birth and a detailed understanding of the embryology and anatomy is crucial. The birth of a child with intersex is a true emergency situation and an immediate transfer to a medical center familiar with the diagnosi...

An infant with a 46XY karyotype was born with ambiguous genitalia, including microphallus and perineal hypospadias. A female gender was assigned due to extreme failure of development of the external genitalia. Subsequent investigations demonstrated panhypopituitarism, and it is believed that severe gonadotrophin deficiency was responsible for the intersex state. This case illustrates the need t...

Katrina Karkazis is a medical anthropologist at the Center for Biomedical Ethics, Stanford University. Her first book, Fixing Sex: Intersex, Medical Authority, and Lived Experience (Duke University Press, 2008), looks at the question of how to treat infants whose bodies do not fit neatly into our scientific categories of “male” or “female,” from the perspective of doctors, parents, and adults w...

Complete trisomy 22, with or without mosaicism, has been reported as a distinct syndrome. In this report an infant is described who was externally male but with female rudimentary internal organs and whose karyotype was 47,XX+22.