A Question of Gender

I found an article online that tells the story of a baby who was born intersexual. It was adopted by Vicki and Charles McDonald, and had a phallus that was larger than a clitoris that was lacking any structure similar to a penis, and was bound down by foreskin, one testicle, no vaginal opening, and an enlarged urethral hole where the vagina should have been. In its abdomen are a basic uterus, one fallopian horn, and an undeveloped gonad. Its chromosomes are a “mosaic” pattern called XY/XO. The baby went into surgery, and came out a baby girl named Emma.

This article relates to the Psychology of Sex and Gender because in class, we learned about other genetic diseases. Congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) (which was also mentioned in the article, where other genetic diseases were discussed) is a genetically based endocrine disorder where females are exposed to elevated androgen levels during the germinal ridge differentiation, and results in masculinized genetalia, an enlarged clitoris, and labial fusion.