October 2, 2015

"Johnny is known as a 'Guevedoce,' which literally means, 'penis at twelve.'"

"And the reason he’s called that is because, like 1 in 90 of the boys in the area, he first started to grow a penis when he was going through puberty."
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.

Johnny, who is now in his 20s, was once known as Felicita. He was brought up as a girl and remembers going to school in a little red dress. When he was young he would happily play with other little girls, but after the age of seven he started to change. “I did not feel good, I no longer liked to wear a skirt, and I was no longer drawn to play with girls. All I wanted to do is play with toy guns and boys.”...
An endocrinologist explains that Guavadoces are "deficient in an enzyme called 5-α-reductase, which normally converts testosterone into dihydro-testosterone." At puberty, there's such a surge of testosterone that the development that should have happened in the womb finally occurs.

20 comments:

pdug said...

I always thought "grow a pair" and "and then his balls dropped" was just an expression

tim maguire said...

I see, so...he was raised as a girl, but when his hormones kicked in, he himself decided, despite the continuing cultural pressure to be a girl, that he'd rather do boy stuff.

How can such a thing be explained? It's one for the sociology journals, for sure.

Laslo Spatula said...

When I read the headline "penis at twelve" I assumed twelve referred to time on a clock and that they were talking about people with perpetual raging hard-ons.

The kind of erpetual raging hard-ons that takes three cheerleaders and one of their mothers to vanquish.

Because -- when you are talking about three cheerleaders -- the odds are that one of the mothers is still hot.

In that 'hot mom of a cheerleader' way.

Alas, the story did not go in that direction.


I am Laslo.

MisterBuddwing said...

Does all this make the kid a "true" transgender?

tim maguire said...

Laslo Spatula said...When I read the headline "penis at twelve" I assumed twelve referred to time on a clock and that they were talking about people with perpetual raging hard-ons.

That was my first thought too--that 12 referred to the direction it was pointing.

MadisonMan said...

Very interesting story. The non black/whiteness of gender continues to astound.

I do wonder why this mutation is concentrated in Hispaniola, though -- or maybe it's only been discovered there, so far.

What slave originally brought the mutation over from Africa? Or maybe it developed spontaneously. So many questions for a scientist to answer.

Ann Althouse said...

"Does all this make the kid a "true" transgender?"

It shows there is a physical side to gender that's a lot more complicated than the oft-stated notion that you're either XX or XY. These babies are XY, yet they look like girls.

Laslo Spatula said...

"Or maybe it developed spontaneously. So many questions for a scientist to answer."

Climate change.

Answered.

I am Laslo.

Scott said...

Famous anagram for "Spiro Agnew" = Grow a penis.

(Spiro Agnew was a famous person. You can look him up on Wikipedia.)

CStanley said...

It shows there is a physical side to gender that's a lot more complicated than the oft-stated notion that you're either XX or XY. These babies are XY, yet they look like girls.

True, but there is still a true biological sex based on the interaction between the sex chromosomes and the development of sex organs through hormonal influence. It's only because something went wrong that there was a discordance.

This is much different than people who believe they are transgender even though their sex organs are in agreement with their chromosomes- that is purely psychological. Of course that too may too be a result of hormonal influence (perhaps all of the estrogens in our environment) and that should be investigated.

MisterBuddwing said...

It shows there is a physical side to gender that's a lot more complicated than the oft-stated notion that you're either XX or XY. These babies are XY, yet they look like girls.

Not to be overly flip, but I'm reminded of that scene in the first "Jurassic Park" movie in which expert dinosaur-maker Dr. Wu (played by B.D. Wong, who reprises the role in the recent "Jurassic World") explains that Jurassic Park controls the dinosaurs' reproduction by making them all females, and that they accomplish this by denying the cloned dinosaurs a certain hormone at a certain stage of their development. No hormone - no male dinosaurs. (Of course, the sneaky dinosaurs find a way around this.)

Wince said...

Johnny is known as a 'Guevedoce,' which literally means, 'penis at twelve'.

"I just went from six to midnight."

SJ said...

Using the distinction "true/false" transgender is not fully accurate.

Some people suffer from a psychological condition known as gender dysphoria, in which they feel like they were born with the wrong body. (Some years ago, I learned of a small-time blogger who had gone by a female name online for many years. That person was born male, but had gender dysphoria...)

Other people suffer from conditions like the hormonal condition associated with Guevedoce in the article.

Interestingly, the article describes someone who went through gender dysphoria between the ages of 7 and 12.

Thus, the two aren't always distinct.

However, cases in which the patient (who presumably suffers from gender dysphoria) has to request a doctor to surgically change their genitals likely don't suffer from hormonal problems which keep genetically-defined gender from manifesting.

It seems that most advocates of trans-genderism want to tell us that gender is "constructed", and not "innate".

This case shows one instance in which gender isn't obvious, but it is innate. And the social construction was re-arranged to match reality when the testosterone manifested itself by turning apparently-female genitalia into male genitalia.

SomeoneHasToSayIt said...

"I no longer liked to wear a skirt, and I was no longer drawn to play with girls. All I wanted to do is play with toy guns and boys.”

So much for gender as a social construct.

"I refute it, thus!" said Dr. Johnson (hey)

Laslo Spatula said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Laslo Spatula said...

Caitlyn, who is now in her 60s, was once known as Bruce. She was brought up as a boy and remembers going to the Olympics in little red shorts. When she was young she would happily play with other male Olympians, but after the age of sixty-five she started to change. “I did not feel good, I wanted to wear a skirt, and I was no longer drawn to act like a man. All I wanted to do is play with make-up and perfumes...

I am Laslo.

Etienne said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Laslo Spatula said...

Since we are now accepting that genitalia is not necessarily an identification of gender I propose we identify by what we all have in common.

The Asshole.

There are three choices.

1. Your Asshole identifies as Male.

2. Your Asshole identifies as Female.

3. Your Asshole identifies as Neutral.

Example:

My asshole identifies as Male.

I have had sex with many women whose Assholes identify as Female.

Solved.

I am Laslo.

pious agnostic said...

Interesting story.

I wonder if there any truth to it.

R. Duke said...

Any chance this might happen to Obama before the Russian take over the world?