Don't know if anyone is looking for a real-life inspiration for a story, but I was just reading a Wikipedia article about an anti-baldness drug, and in the discussion of its discovery/development was this sentence:
"In 1974, Julianne Imperato-McGinley of Cornell Medical College in New York attended a conference on birth defects. She reported on a group of intersex children in the Caribbean who appeared sexually ambiguous at birth, and were initially raised as girls, but then grew external male genitalia and other masculine characteristic post-onset of puberty. "
Might make for an interesting story, no? As I'm not much of an author, I'm just punting this out there for whoever wants to pick it up and run with it. (Sorry for the American Football reference.)
Comments
The term is "huevedoce"...
...assuming I spelled it correctly. I came across that phenomenon in the seventies in high school when I was searching desperately for any transgender-related magazine articles. As a matter of fact, I wanted a character in a story I'd written to have that condition, but I wanted the character to remain female. I understand that seldom happens, since these individuals usually transition to living as males.
Livin' A Ragtime Life,
Rachel
Guevedoce
"Guevedoche" or "guevedoce" seem to be the preferred spellings. It's 5-alpha-reductase deficiency.
That paper would presumably be: Imperato-McGinley, Julianne; Guerrero, Luis; Gautier, Teofilo; Peterson, Ralph Edward, "Steroid 5alpha-reductase deficiency in man: an inherited form of male pseudohermaphroditism". Science, vol. 186 (no. 4170) pp. 1213–1215 (December 1974).
John B.
A thought I have had :
I Have heard of this before, and I have had a crazy thought about it.
What if all males had this condition and everyone looked female until they hit puberty.
What an different world it would be.
Just imagine how it could effect gender roles if there was no obvious difference in youth.
Think of all the social implications.
.
Besides conventional settings I also think It would make a good SciFi story premise.
"A colonized world where they deliberately choose this condition."
Everyone/anyone, Feel free to take the thought and run with it.