Girl Becomes A Healthy Boy At 14

MONGOLIA - After living 14 years as a "girl," a hermaphrodite teen from Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region will receive reconstructive surgery at a local hospital today to fix the patient's real identity - male.
A psychology test last weekend confirmed the patient surnamed Liu identifies himself as a boy and is keen for the plastic surgery.
The child was raised as a girl, because Liu was born with no penis and no external testicles.
Liu also had an undeveloped female sex organ, but no ovaries, no womb and no vagina.
But in February, after two bumps were seen on the child's belly, Liu had primary surgery to locate the testicles by doctors in Baotou City of Inner Mongolia, and Dr Chen Fang from Shanghai's Xinhua Hospital.
Ultimately, doctors told the family their child had two healthy testicles, but that they had not descended. And the family also learned that Liu had chromosomes typical for a healthy male.
"After undergoing a reconstructive surgery on the female-like external organ, he can live a normal life as other men and have his own children in the future," Chen said. "The operation will last four to five hours to rebuild a male sex organ."
Since Liu came from a needy farmer's family in Baotou, doctors said the nearly 15,000 yuan (US$1,875) medical expenses are covered by donations from local residents and discounts offered by the hospital.
To avoid ridicule, the family moved to a new village in Inner Mongolia.
Doctors said such congenital sexual disorders occur in one of every 2,000 to 3,000 newborn boys.
However, doctors said only about 10 percent of such cases are as severe as Liu's.
from Shanghai Daily