Surgery removes wedded woman's hidden testicles
(Shanghai Daily)
Updated: 2005-11-24 09:40

She looks like a woman, acts like a woman and got married as a wife. But she couldn't bear children because she is actually a man.

A Jiangsu native who always thought she was a woman - and so did everybody else - actually had two hidden testicles, no ovaries and no uterus, devastating her life.

Her congenital anomaly was surgically removed, but she cannot bear children and a chromosome examination confirmed that "she" is actually a "he."

The case is one in 10,000.

The patient underwent successful surgery at the Shanghai Consonancy Hospital this month.

The 27-year-old woman, identified only as Zhang, was married three years ago to her colleague in a middle school. Since she was unable to become pregnant, she visited Shanghai Consonancy after consulting the Internet.

An ultrasound check found she had no ovaries and no uterus but two small testicles hidden in the abdominal cavity. A chromosome examination, however, confirmed Zhang is actually a male.

Since Zhang has a vagina, it was not until the ultrasound exam that the couple learned "she" was a "he."

Zhang only has testicles but no other male organs, such as a penis, and other male characteristics.

She has female external genitalia and was reared as a girl.

Zhang never had a menstrual period, but examinations dismissed that.

"We urged her to undergo a surgery to remove the testicles and retain her female identity," said Wang Aili, the hospital's head gynecologist.