Rajasthan teen opts to be ‘girl’ when doctors tell her to choose sexual identity

JAIPUR: At birth, she was a girl. When she attained puberty, she was chirpy, lively and enjoyed every moment of her adolescent life. As she grew a little more, she noticed that she was not having periods.
“I studied in a girls’ school. When I noticed other girls, I found something lacking in me physically. I found physical changes in other girls as they grew, but I did not have any such changes. Since I studied science, I thought it could be due to certain hormone issues in me which could be resolved with time, but, it never happened. I talked to my family who took me to a doctor,” said the 18-year-old, who was raised as a girl by her parents.
Her parents took her to a gynaecologist, who examined her and suspected that it could be more than the medical condition that delayed menstruation.
The gynaecologist referred her to department of urology, SMS Medical College, for examination.
Doctors at the urology department revealed that she has organs which are specifically present in males, but were concealed inside her abdomen. When she came to know about it, her whole world came crashing down.
She was diagnosed with a genetic disorder of sexual development (DSD), a condition in which an individual with one X chromosome and one Y chromosome in each cell. In such condition, genitalia is not clearly male or female.
“We explained her entire medical condition. She listened carefully. We gave her both options that we could give her male gender identity as she already had those organs which were not outside the body but inside it, but she refused,” said Dr SS Yadav, senior professor (urology), SMS Medical College.
Following her surgery for removal of male organs at SMS Hospital last month, she is more confident now.
Her 45-year-old father, who is a business and social worker said, “It was a difficult time for us as doctors asked her to opt gender identity. My daughter is brave and she aspires to become an IAS officer. We decided to keep her as a girl. We are happy with the decision. Since she has been raised as girl, society would not accept her as a boy. It would become difficult for her to deal with that.”
Doctors will now reconstruct her internal parts to complete the process of giving her female gender identity.