I am a man with a uterus...Intersex child?

[Guest jebenedict]

I'm not a huge blogger but I felt the need to open up about a condition I have. After a recent cat scan, it was determined that I possessed a uterus. I also believe a have what's known as ovotestes or a combination of ovaries & testicles. This is interesting to me because I suspect that I was born an intersex child with ambiguous genitalia. I also suspect that doctors constructed a penis so that I would be raised a male. Chromosome tests came back XY. I have several surgical scars from procedures in my lower abdomen, scars on my penis, undescended testicles (ovotestes are unable to descend) and a urethra underneath the penis (known as hypospadias). As a result, my penis has a 90 degree bend. My reasons for posting in this forum center on the need to research intersex conditions and connect with others who suspect they were born as an intersex child. How does this play into my bisexuality? Does this play a part in transgender people? Any thoughts?

[Guest N. Jane]

Are you the father of your wife's children? If so, it is highly unlikely that you have ova-testes.

There is a condition called "Persistent Mullairian Dust Syndrome" where an XY individual can have a uterus.

Have you had your chromosomes tested? That is relatively inexpensive and would be the first test done for suspected Intersex conditions.

[Carolyn Marie]

Welcome to the Playground, hon. I don't know much about this subject, but I do know that we have some members here who know a lot more than I do. I hope they come along with some advice and suggestions. In the meantime, please make yourself at home, and read the forum threads that interest you, and ask whatever questions you like.

HUGS

Carolyn Marie

[Guest sally-jane]

hi my doctors think im intersex because when i went to them and told them that im transgendered they examined me and said that i might be intersex as well because of how my body looks, because they have said my body type is female and i have secondary sex characteristic of a woman but primary male so im waiting for tests to be done but yes i have thought something was not right as i grow up

sometimes a intersex person can transition from one gender to the other not because they are transgendered but because they were put in the wrong gender at birth by there parents and doctors as i have read

sally

[JJ]

As a DES baby the likelihood is great that I am intersex. The last stats I saw were that 42% of DES babies test intersexed.

I also have genital scars that indicate some sort of revision surgery. I didn't discover them till after anyone who could confirm it is gone but I have had some very odd reactions every time I had an gyne exam which the Drs always explained by saying the standard 'It's nothing to worry about". Medical protocol is not to tell a patient they have had revision surgery unless they already know. I was able to have a child but only after going on birth control-the Dr had said she thought I couldn't get pregnant anyway but I insisted because I was in a very bad marriage and planning to leave. I had been in long term relationships without any preventive and had not gotten pregnant either. When I got pregnant the Dr said it was because of the birth control pills and I had a hormone imbalance. They caused me to be fertile rather than preventing pregnancy

I also have male skeletal proportions. the bone ratios are slightly different. Another problem with my pregnancy was that my pelvic structure is wrong for a female.

I cannot afford testing but in the long run it really doesn't matter anyway. I live as myself and that is what counts

Johnny

[Bulldog1948]

Hi Jeb and Welcome aboard.

Very impressive list of degrees. To receive degrees in those fields one has to be very smart. But then again, IS people are generally very smart.

I do have a quick question for you. You stated that you had a uterus. Did you ever have periods? And if so, were they monthly or whenevers? Please forgive me for being so personal but IS information is always new and impotant.

Mike

[Guest chargrl1]

I have reason to believe that something was "fixed" on me at birth as well, I'm not going to go into the details.

I'll say this much, the only thing on me that would indicate male is a penis. there is nothing else there that is male. it sucks, I want that thing gone!

There are all sorts of variations of intersex, if you have ovatestes you would be highly unlikely to father children with them. They could be undescended testicles. Not saying it would be impossible, just highly unlikely.

Myself, I was never able to father children. not that I did not have opportunites, things just never "worked" that way.

I had one girlfriend one time who got really mad at me because of no testicles, like it was my freakin' fault or something. I am who I am, and good riddance to her if she couldn't deal with it or thought that I should be a man just because she thought I should be. She tried to force me to be what she thought and that went horribly wrong for me. and just peed her off worse.

Well, that was long ago and far away, and best forgotten. I didn't mean to rant but I got started on it.

I am happy to be who I am now I just wish that thing was gone.

I don't know what you are wishing or wanting to hear but that's the story.

[Guest Stacie Cheyenne]

It Truly and Absolutely, Sound's like You, Have a Beautiful and very Loving Family, Hope You find the answers Your Looking for. "" Stacie Cheyenne ""

[Guest N. Jane]

..... I had one girlfriend one time who got really mad at me .....

LOL! That reminded me of an incident just before I left home and changed my social sex in my early 20s.

I never had any interest in being intimate with girls (though I had been assigned male within the first 6 months of my life) but there was one girl who had taken a serious interest in me and was being quite persistent. I don't know what she expected but I am sure she got a surprise LOL! Sexual relations were impossible, I had breasts and no testes so it was quite a farce. I am sure she left quite confused and disappointed!

Edited January 24, 2014 by N. Jane
a bit more graphic than allowed by T+Cs

[Guest HughE]

Just to echo what JJ was saying, it's possible you could have been exposed to DES, since the abnormalities you mention (hypospadias, undescended testes and vestigial female organs) are some of the ones that seem to quite commonly occur in "DES sons".

DES is an artificial estrogen that, from 1940 to the mid-1970s, was widely used in pregnancies where there was thought to be a risk of miscarriage or premature birth. It's estimated that around 5 million women in total were given the drug, and between 2 and 3 million "DES daughters" (and an equal number of DES sons) were born who'd been exposed to DES in the womb. DES subsequently turned out to be a potent carcinogen, and DES mothers and daughters are acknowledged to have much higher than normal rates of several kinds of cancer. The daughters are also acknowledged to have often been born with defects of their internal reproductive organs (a bifurcated uterus and a hooded or "cockscomb" cervix), that make it very difficult to have children. [Although it's not an officially acknowledged side effect, I've gained the impression that the daughters have much higher rates of endocrine disorders (PCOS or hyperandrogenism) than normal, and that's probably a big part of the reason why so many of them have difficulties having children.]

The official line has always been that the DES sons came through their exposure virtually unscathed. That's completely contrary to what I've seen though: the ones I've talked to online (or whose life stories I've read) seem to have very high rates of intersex-related genital abnormalities similar to the ones you've described, and very high rates of gender dysphoria too, along with endocrine disorders and problems with fertility. Here's a list I came up with of things that seem to be commonly associated with being a DES son (note that most of these can also be the result of other types of intersex condition too):

Born between 1940 and 1971 (US) or 1980 (elsewhere)
Mother with a previous history of miscarriages; diabetes; other risk factors such as being in her 40s

Birth defects:
Undescended testicles
Micropenis - a fully formed but considerably shorter than normal penis
Hypospadias
Epididymal cysts of the testicles (these are apparently Mullerian remnants - fragments of female tissue that would have been absorbed in normal male development)
Vestigial female organs or organ remnants
Intersexed genitals similar to grade 3 PAIS
Other genital abnormalities (in my case a hydrocele)

Later in life:
Feminine-looking facial features, developing a body structure that's more like the female members of your family than the male ones
Other symptoms of low testosterone such as a lack of body hair, gynecomastica and an inability to build upper body muscle
Very shy, socially passive behaviour as a teenager
Difficulty forming friendships with boys; having a special affinity with girls
Being bullied a lot; having an inability to fight back
Having no interest in sport
People tending to assume you're gay; lots of men being attracted to you
Identifying as a woman, or part of you identifying as a woman while another part identifies as a man

Some of the DES daughters seem to have ended up intersexed too (as JJ can testify!), although that appears to happen less often than with the sons.

It's not just DES that can do this either, since I'm fairly sure the culprit in my case was birth control pills and not DES. Nonetheless, I've experienced a lot of the same effects DES sons seem to experience, and I think what differences there are, are mainly due to it being a shorter duration of exposure than was typical for DES.