'Mostly Male' Woman Gives Birth to Twins

32-year-old looks female but has more than 95% male chromosomes
By Elizabeth Armstrong Moore,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 10, 2015 8:08 AM CST
'Mostly Male' Woman Gives Birth to Twins
Parents hold their twin newborns at the Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis on Jan. 1, 2012.   (AP Photo/The Star Tribune, Richard Sennott)

When a 32-year-old sought fertility treatment in India, she learned that while her appearance is female, her chromosomes are 95% male; the intersex condition is known as "XY gonadal dysgenesis," reports the Daily Mail. Thanks to extensive hormone treatments, she has just given birth to healthy twins—a feat that's only been reported in five previous cases. "This is akin to a male delivering twins," fertility specialist Sunil Jindal tells AFP. "It's nothing short of a medical miracle. We are really happy that we could pull it off."

The woman had never gone through puberty or menstruated and was "flabbergasted" to learn of her condition, though her husband remained supportive and reportedly told her, "No matter what, you continue to be my wife." To prep her body for pregnancy, the woman first underwent a year of hormonal and other medical treatments to develop her "infantile uterus," at which point donor eggs fertilized by her husband's sperm were implanted. Born via cesarean, the boy and girl weighed in at 4.9 pounds and 5.5 pounds. (A woman born "genetically male" also recently gave birth to twins.)

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