Güevedoce

Güevedoces is a term used for children with a specific type of intersexuality in the Dominican Republic, However it is uncommon elsewhere. They are classified as girls when they are born but, around the age of 12, they start developing male genitalia. This is due to a deficiency in the production of 5α-reductase, an enzyme involved in the metabolism of testosterone.[1][2][3][4][5]

Early research

The first scientific investigations of the güevedoces occurred in the 1970s, when Dr. Julianne Imperato-McGinley, an endocrinologist from Cornell University traveled to the village of Salinas (population 4300) in the Dominican Republic to investigate reports of apparently female children becoming male children at the onset of puberty.[6] The cause was determined to be 5α-Reductase deficiency, and the results were published in the journal Science in 1974. The frequency of the deficiency was found to be unusually high in Salinas, with occurrence ratio of 1 guevedoce to every 90 unaffected males.[7]

See also

• LGBT rights in the Dominican Republic
• Gender system
• 5α-Reductase type 2 deficiency

References

1. "The extraordinary case of the Guevedoces". BBC. 20 September 2015.
2. Баринова, Анастасия (4 September 2018). "Девочки превращаются в мальчиков: доминиканский феномен". National Geographic Russia (in Russian).
3. Knapton, Sarah (20 September 2015). "The astonishing village where little girls turn into boys aged 12". The Telegraph.
4. Bosson, Jennifer K.; Vandello, Joseph A.; Buckner, Camille E. (2018). The Psychology of Sex and Gender. SAGE. ISBN 9781506331324.
5. Pou, Jackie (4 March 2015). "The World of Intersex Children and One Person's Journey Between Two Sexes". ABC News.
6. The 'Guevedoces' of the Dominican Republic, Urological Sciences Research Foundation, retrieved August 23, 2019
7. Imperato-McGinley, Julianne; Guerrero, Luis; Gautier, Teofilo; Peterson, Ralph Edward (December 1974). "Steroid 5alpha-reductase deficiency in man: an inherited form of male pseudohermaphroditism". Science. 186 (4170): 1213–1215. doi:10.1126/science.186.4170.1213. PMID 4432067.

External links