Transestia

1- Nuclear chromatin, the one test which can provide a clear-cut "he or she" answer in most, but not all cases.

2- Cytogenetics, the study of chromosomes, which was once looked to for all the answers, but which has proved to report anomalies in quite normal people. It is still the tool of choice for studying inter- sexes formed at conception.

3- Embryology, experimentation on barely developed fetuses which has revealed a second stage at which abnormality can develop. (This was discussed in TVia 44; here the emphasis is on the body effects produced by a shift in timing of arrival of hormones at the critical tissues).

4- Endocrinology, the hormone story with which some of us are all too familiar. This relates to puberty, the third point in life where things can go astray.

Next, a further section on the chromosomal mechanism; then, a long look at the results of the various mishaps which can take place at conception, during the embryo stage and at puberty. There are SO many possibilities for slips at each stage that it is a wonder anyone grows up "normal" - if, indeed, they do!

The show-piece of the chromosomal problems is, of course, Klinefelter's Syndrome. Here the patient has chromosomes in excess of the normal 46 (up to 49) and is anatomically an underdeveloped male, infertile, with some eunuch-like details. They are subnormal in intelligence, anti-social in attitude, abnormally talkative (without saying much), and they almost all test "female" by the chromatin-positive standard. Six or seven subgroups have been indentified, which may lack one of these characteristics. They have no feeling of femininity. The most startling finding is that they constitute 1/400 of the male population! (The incidence is much higher among convicts).

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