Married woman, 25, is shocked to learn she was born a man

A married woman who tried for a year to get pregnant without success was shocked to find she was born a biological man. 

The 25-year-old Chinese woman was told she had the male Y chromosome, despite having female genital organs and having lived as a woman all her life – a rare condition affecting people who sometimes describe themselves as intersex. 

The discovery emerged following an X-ray on an injured ankle, but also explained why she had never had a period and failed to get pregnant with her husband. 

A hospital doctor told the South China Morning Post that the patient was now mulling her future as she reconsiders her gender identity. 

A 25-year-old Chinese woman was told she had the male Y chromosome, despite having female genital organs and having lived as a woman all her life (stock photo) 

The woman, whose name was given as Pingping, was told she had a condition called a ’46 XY disorder of sexual development’ in which people with male chromosomes have ambiguous, underdeveloped or missing genital organs. 

Because the woman had ostensibly female organs, she had never questioned her sex, and had turned a blind eye to the fact she had never menstruated. 

When her mother took her to a doctor as a child, she was told that she might simply be developing more slowly than others. 

‘After I grew up, I found this issue quite embarrassing so I didn’t treat it seriously,’ she said.   

But the doctors who looked at her ankle were struck by her underdeveloped bones and investigated further – bringing forth the surprising result. 

Doctors informed her that she had no uterus or ovaries, which explained why her 12-month effort to get pregnant had ended in disappointment. 

But she also had no male genitalia or testes, with doctors saying that these might have existed once but ‘degenerated and atrophied’. 

The medics said Pingping’s family should have taken her for more thorough checks years ago, adding that her parents were closely related. 

They said they had treated Pingping for high blood pressure and low blood potassium, but said she would need professional help dealing with the sex finding.

‘It takes a long time to rebuild the social role and reconstruct the family and it’s going to be a painstaking process, where psychological intervention is necessary. But Pingping has not asked for help from us so far,’ one mental health doctor said. 

The US-based Genetic and Rare Diseases Information Center (GARD) says many people with this condition have ‘genitalia that is not clearly male or female’. 

GARD experts say that some people with 46 XY have ‘fully to underdeveloped female reproductive organs’ such as a uterus and fallopian tubes, while others do not. 

Treatment can involve surgery or hormone replacement therapy, but Pingping is apparently still deciding how to respond.