Outcomes of CAH?

[Meadow]

After reading some recent posts from persons who have CAH that may or not be gay or may have a male identity, I got to wondering how the virilizing effects of CAH might affect a persons identity in life. In other words, as an adult, how many persons with CAH are:

Female - Straight
Female - Gay
Identify as Male

I feel that this is a legitimate question. It is something that may already have solid answers based in research, but, none the less, I would appreciate a discussion on this matter.

Respectfully,

Meadow

[Sunshine1]

This is only a test this is only a test .....been posting but isn't getting thru

[Sunshine1]

Hi Meadow - yes been lots of research on this subject.
will write more later tried postig a couple of times ..didn't work.

[Betsy]

I don't really have the time to start pulling research for actual citations but roughtly more women with CAH are lesbian or bi according to self-reporting methods than unaffected women. I think it's as high as 40-45%.

Only a few more of those born female with CAH take a male identity compared to unaffected women. I know a couple outside of the forums however they also have documented cases of CAH as opposed to those who once wrote in an email that was forwarded to me that, "they think have CAH". Having CAH in the classical sense (either salt-wasting nor simple virilizing) is rarely something you 'think' you have due to the other life-threatening health issues involved.

[pricklypear]

Hi Meadow

I am a female with CAH (non-classical) but I am straight. Although I sometimes wonder if I am not bi. People think I’m feminine, and I don’t have a deep voice at all, but it’s like yeah, if only you knew about the lovely spikey hair on my legs. My arms are also more hairy (darker, courser, more dense) than a lot of guys I know, but of course I shave and ‘keep up appearances’ and I have started laser hair removal. But I ertainly am not desperate to be in a relationship, only to be scrutinised for my feminine-short-comings.
I think I have alot of excess testosterone, although I love being feminine. It’s just that I sometimes think that in my case being feminine is a paradox, and possibly pointless, I feel like it’s a façade, and the hairiness has to some extent given me an ideological gender identity crisis. I am part girly-girl, part tomboy. If I can’t be the perfect girl that I want to be, then what am I? I am biologically female, yet ideologically and ideally my femininity is contested by the hairiness. My physical reality and my mental ideals of myself are incohesive.

Anyway, this is sort of a stream of conciousness. I have issues with men in general, (don’t like ‘em much) but I am sexually attracted to them. I also find women attractive to some extent- I sure wouldn’t kick Catherine Munig (from the L-word) out of my bed, but then again she is rather guy-like. I have often wondered if I might be bi, but I still doubt that I would ever have the inclination to actually go the distance with a chick, because truth be told, I’m more the passive type, and I have no desire to do what men do sexually.

So I am confused about gender in general philosophically, as I feel like it is often just a role that we play.

Angela
:outtahere