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desertwhistler
08-29-02, 12:16 PM
Hello, my name is Noel and I just joined this forum today. A friend told me about the site, and I am very glad he did.

I am 66 years old, have just recently been dx'd 45,X0/45,XX, and identify as male. I have reason to believe that I may have had anomalous genitals at birth because I've had an odd "mark" all my life, which I now believe may be a scar, in the pubic area where a penis would be.

The percentage of X0 to XX is rather small (~10% X0), but I have many of the body and general characteristics of Turners Syndrome. However, I had a "normal" puberty, began mensus at 13 and menopause at 38, and was fertile. I bore two daughters and had several early-onset miscarriages. I never received estrogen and, as I said above, my chromosomal variation went undiagnosed for 66 (nearly 67 years).

I was severely abused in my childhood, and I've spent many, many years in therapy. The abuse was a significant factor in my psychological problems, but I now believe we were looking in the wrong place for their roots. The majority of the problems I experienced were apparently related to difficulties from my chromosomal variance.

Right now, I am trying to get as much information as possible about Turners Syndrome and how likely it may be that I am also intersexed. One thing I'd like to know is if Turners Syndrome is often, or sometimes, a factor in being intersexed and/or transgendered. The Turner Syndrome sites I've looked at have not been much help, unfortunately, since they deal mostly with hormone treatment (which would not be benificial at my age), and with living with TS, which I have done for far too long. The road I am on now is more than satisfactory to me, but I would like to have a better understanding of myself.

Thanks, and I am glad to be here.

Noel

Ann
08-29-02, 07:31 PM
Welcome to the forums, Noel! I'm glad you joined us. You'll find understanding, caring and sympathetic friends here.
I know a bit about Turner Syndrome, as I am an XO/XY mosaic, which is often included with the more classic XO genotype. There is considerable information available on the Internet about our condition, including the excellent site of the the Turner Syndrome Society of the United States at www.turner-syndrome-us.org. You need to join the society to have full access to the site, which has medical information about the condition, as well as a message board, chat room, members directory and extensive links.
Pub Med,the National Library of Medicine's database of medical articles at www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed, is scholarly, but the sheer wealth of information available there is phenomenal.
To answer your question, yes, people like you and I are considered intersex, so you have found a home here.
I hope I've been some help and join the others at the forum in encouraging you to come back often.
Best Wishes,
Ann

claraJane
08-29-02, 07:57 PM
Dear Noel,

Welcome!

Mosaicism involving the absence of an X or a Y chromosome in one of the cell lines may affect the reproductive system. The percentage of XO cells can vary throughout the body and may change over time. If your XO to XX ratio was too high in your gonadal tissue during fetal development you could have developed streak ovaries. Being fertile is definitely an indication that your ovaries were pretty well formed. Many women who are XX-Turner mosaics experience an early menopause. Pure Turner women experience ovarian failure prior to birth.

Although your karyotype could be considered intersex because it is something other than XX or XY, it isn't likely that your mosaicism resulted in any genital ambiguity. Even mosaicism involving the Y chromosome doesn't usually result in genital ambiguity.

About 90 percent of XY/XO babies are born with normal appearing external genitals, about five percent normal female, and about five percent ambiguous. At least 20 percent have something other than two normal testes, however.

I get to talk with quite a few parents of XY/XO children and the rates of gender identity "problems" appear to be higher in XY/XO than in the general population. These are mostly children born with ambiguous genitals who had surgery as infants or who were born with male external genitalia and ovatestes or dysgenetic testes.

If you have specific questions regarding mosaicism I'd be happy to try to track down the appropriate medical journal articles. Some of the information here is from articles reprinted on the XY/XO site at www.xyxo.org.

Kind regards,

Jane :)
46,XY/45,X
XY-Turners

desertwhistler
08-29-02, 08:08 PM
Thank you for your excellent information. I have visited and bookmarked all the sites listed in the posts, and will spend several days gleaning information.

Noel

beach
08-30-02, 02:57 AM
hi noel welcome to the club so to say ..........beach

Az1
09-04-02, 10:32 PM
Welcome Noel,
Welcome to bodies like ours . I am Muhoe and I wanted to welcome you to this site.

Az1

Muhoe