If your baby's genitals aren't developed properly, how would you choose the gender?

Question

I've seen shows where doctors have made parents choose the gender of the child because the penis or vagina was over- or underdevelop instead of going by the gender of the blood test. Is this what happens when some people "feel" they were born the wrong sex?

Answer 1

I wouldn't.

If the penis is underdeveloped, called "micropenis", it's STILL a baby boy. If the vagina is overdeveloped, usually macroclitoris, it's STILL a baby girl.

In cases where the sex is really 'indeterminate' ... there are no openings, very little development, conflicting inner sex organs ... I would leave things in the genital area as they were, and do a blood test to determine what gender to raise the child as.

If they wanted to have surgery to make them conform to what's 'normal', that's a decision for THEM to make, not me. I'd encourage them to decide whether surgery was right later on, maybe in the teens.

That is certainly what happens when doctors do surgery on babies' genitals and later find out that they picked the wrong sex. People who honestly were BORN the wrong sex were exposed to the incorrect hormones while in the womb, making their brains develop to be closer to the opposite gender.

Answer 2

I wouldnt choose the sex. There have been so many people whose parents chose their sex and later on in life they are miserable. I would leave my child the way they are and when they get older let them make the decision themselves. As far as chromosomes go, you cant really distinguish by that either. There is sexually amiguous condition where a person is physically a male but has female chromosomes. And vice versa, a woman can be physically normal but have male chromosomes. It isnt common, but it does happen.

Answer 3

And the child was miserable their whole life. You can have a blood test or something to determine the gender.

Answer 4

That is an interesting observation. Although I think that it is choice when an older person changes sex, some abnormalities in the genital region as an infant could influence this choice directly.

Answer 5

It is is almost always due to a "micro pennis" in which case the dna is that of a boy but if steroids do not work he will never be able o have asex laife, so the parents are then given the choice...a very hard one

Answer 6

you could have the chromosones checked & go with that result