On the face of it, the small village of Salinas in the Barahona Province
of the southwestern part of the Dominican Republic, is like many other
Caribbean hideaways.
The natives are friendly, there's sandy beaches and the sun beats down
often - but there is one peculiarity that sets it apart from the rest of
the world.
At puberty one in 90 children born there make a natural transformation from girl to boy.
Referred to as the ‘guevedoces’ which literally translates as ‘penis at
12’ - these children are known in medical terms as 'pseudohermaphrodite'
- and feature in a new BBC 2 series called Countdown to Life - the
Extraordinary Making of You.
“I remember I used to wear a little red dress,” said Johnny who at 24 was once known as Felecitia and did not have a penis.
“I was born at home instead of in a hospital. "They didn’t know what sex I was.
“I went to school and I used to wear my skirt. I never liked to dress as a girl.
"When they bought me girls toys I never bothered playing with them. All I wanted to do was play with the boys.”
The guevedoces were uncovered by Cornell University endocrinologist Dr
Julianne Imperato in the 1970s who travelled to the region to learn more
about rumours that girls were morphing into boys.
And in the four decades since there have been studies, more has been learned about the perfectly natural condition.
Believed to have transpired through a rare genetic disorder, the
condition is caused by a missing enzyme that prevents the production the
male sex hormone - dihydro-testosterone - in the womb - and creates
what looks like a baby girl on birth.
It is not until puberty, when testosterone flows, their voices break and
they grow a male sexual reproductive organ that they become recognised
as male.
BBC presenter Dr Michael Mosley said:
“I hated going through puberty; voice cracking, swinging moods, older
brother laughing at me. But compared to Johnny, I had it easy.
“Guevedoces are also sometimes called “machihembras” meaning “first a
woman, then a man.” "When they’re born they look like girls with no
testes and what appears to be a vagina.
"It is only when they near puberty that the penis grows and testicles descend.
“When Dr Imperato investigated the Guavadoces she discovered the reason
they don’t have male genitalia at birth is because they are deficient in
an enzyme called 5-α-reductase, which normally converts testosterone
into dihydro-testosterone.
“By a quirk of chance Dr Imperato’s research was picked up by the American pharmaceutical giant, Merck.
"They used her discovery to create a drug called finasteride, which blocks the action of 5-α-reductase.
“It is now widely used to treat benign enlargement of the prostate and
male pattern baldness. For which, I’m sure, many men are truly
grateful.”
UK Mirror
