[juliaw04]

Originally Posted by Nikki+2

Nancy I've also heard that some are born with XXY- do you know if that's true? I certainly hope it's a thing of the past for parents to decide for these children which sex they are to the point of irrevocable surgery. I was completely shocked to hear of the circumcision accident though. Oops... guess he's a girl now. I'm sure that worked out.

Actually, no it didn't work out at all. In fact, the situation lead to some very serious consequences for the family, which in the end resulted in both twins committing suicide. As Nancy said, it was extremely common for parents to opt for reconstructive surgery while the child was still a baby. Doctors (Particularly Dr. John Money) were pushing that if the surgery took place within the child's first two and half to three years, "the child is still young enough so that whichever assignment was made, erotic interest would almost certainly direct itself toward the opposite sex later on." (As Nature Made Him)

In the case of the baby in the circumcision accident, he was born a healthy male (XY chromosomes). During the accident, his genitalia were burnt off. Dr. Money convinced the family that female reconstruction was the best way to go because the technology didn't exist yet to recreate male structures. This is where the whole Nature vs. Nurture debate began. Dr. Money believed that the environment you were raised in solely dictates your gender identity. By the age of 4, the baby called (Brenda or Bruce depending) already knew that something wasn't right with his/her body. When she turned 15, the parents allowed her to make the switch back to male and eventually he told his story to a reporter that turned it into a book.

I'm not entirely sure I would recommend As Nature Made Him to anyone that doesn't have to read the book for a class, etc. however it is truly eye opening.

Nikki, to answer your question about XXY, yes it is possible and so is a whole range of chromosome abnormalities. I'm on campus at the moment and don't have my sexuality textbook with me so I can't give details at the moment...but Yes, it is possible.