Rare Condition Causes Some Dominican Republic Girls to Become Boys at Puberty
BY JESSICA FIRGER 9/21/15 AT 5:25 PM
During the first week after conception a fetus hasn’t yet developed its gender. In small communities in the Dominican Republic, this sometimes won't happen until a child reaches puberty when some girls quite literally transform into boys. REUTERS/ALESSANDRO BIANCHI
BY JESSICA FIRGER 9/21/15 AT 5:25 PM
During the first week after conception a fetus hasn’t yet developed its gender. In small communities in the Dominican Republic, this sometimes won't happen until a child reaches puberty when some girls quite literally transform into boys. REUTERS/ALESSANDRO BIANCHI
- Tech & Science, Gender, Dominican Republic, genetics, guevedoces
According to the filmmakers, one in 90 boys in the communities in the Dominican Republic is a pseudo-hermaphrodite. Researchers at the University of California Berkeley say this condition has also been identified in children living in the eastern highlands of Papua New Guinea. Local physicians have become more attuned to identifying which girls may turn out to be guevedocesat the onset of puberty but that doesn’t mean it’s now less common.
