Woman in China went to doctor about a hurt ankle only to be told she was born a biological male and is intersex
- China’s absence of compulsory sex education in schools blamed for woman’s late discovery
- The woman tried to fall pregnant in the previous 12 months; she now has to decide her gender identity
The woman, whose external female genitalia never forced her to question her sex, stumbled upon the discovery after an X-ray of her injured ankle was taken in a hospital in her hometown.
When the X-ray revealed that her bones had not developed past the age of adolescence, the doctor’s further probing uncovered the fact that Pingping, whose name has been changed to protect her identity, had never menstruated. She said she’d turned a blind eye to it out of embarrassment.
“When I was young my mum took me to the doctor. The doctor said I was just developing slower than others sexually, and that I could have my period in a few years,” she told the local doctor.
“After I grew up, I found this issue quite embarrassing so I didn’t treat it seriously.”
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A Hong Kong transgender man's journey to becoming his true self
Despite the lack of menstruation, Pingping had no reason to suspect she was anything other than a biological woman because she had external female genitalia, the First Affiliated Hospital of College of Medicine, Zhejiang University said in a statement posted on WeChat this week.
