Yahoo – AFP, June 4, 2013
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| (AFP) |
HONG KONG
(AFP) - A 66-year-old who lived his whole life as a man was given a surprising
diagnosis after visiting the doctor in Hong Kong with a swollen abdomen -- he
was a woman.
Doctors realised
the patient was female after they found the swelling came from a large cyst on
an ovary, the Hong Kong Medical Journal reported.
The
condition was the result of two rare genetic disorders.
The subject
had Turner syndrome, which affects girls and women and results from a problem
with the chromosomes, with characteristics including infertility and short
stature.
But he also
had congenital adrenal hyperplasia, increasing male hormones and making the
patient, who had a beard and a "micropenis", appear like a man.
"Were
it not due to the huge ovarian cyst, his intriguing medical condition might
never have been exposed," seven doctors from two of the city's hospitals
wrote in the study published Monday.
The 1.37
meters (4.5 feet) tall patient, who grew up as an orphan, was found to have no
testes, a history of urinary leakage since childhood, and stopped growing after
puberty at the age of 10.
The doctors
said there have been only six cases where both genetic disorders have been
reported in medical literature. Turner Syndrome on its own affects only one in
2,500 to 3,000 females.
The
Vietnam-born Chinese patient decided to continue "perceiving himself as
having a male gender with the possible need of testosterone replacement,"
according to the journal.
Most men
have a X and a Y chromosome and most women have a pair of X chromosomes. But
people with Turner Syndrome tend to have only one X chromosome or are missing
part of their second X chromosome.
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