There was this 25 years old Lady who had a very successful life. She had a caring family and a loving husband.
The couple was trying to have a baby; they tried for more than a year before they decided
“We must get a professional's opinion.”
A series of tests led to Karyotyping, in other words the Lady’s genetic map to see if there is any abnormality with the chromosomes.
As you know the male has 46 chromosomes and an X and Y (sex chromosomes) the female has XX.
Now this Lady had an XY! So she was a man trapped inside the body of a woman. Only that is not true. She was a female, she had all the organs for a female but her ovaries were not functioning, and she did not have a developed womb. Otherwise everything was there.
Now The Doctors had 2 options.
1) To tell her the Truth.
2) Hide the Truth.
Nobody likes to make a decision on behalf of someone else.
Do we tell someone who lived for 25 years as a woman that she is a man?
How is she going to take it?
How is the husband going to take it?
How is the family going to take it?
We know from experience that women with breast cancer who end up losing their breast suffer psychologically as a result of feeling like “incomplete females”. So one could only imagine the profound impact such revelation will have on this lady.
The Dilemma:
We could conceal the truth and tell her you have non functioning ovaries, you can continue with your life but you will not have babies, it happens even in normal females!
Or we could tell her you are actually a male we don’t care how that may affect you psychologically but there you have it we are honest.
Well, you can argue being honest with being thoughtful.
Children, often ask a very annoying question : WHY? … why cant we fly? Wy do I have to eat? Why take a shower? So on.
But in this case it’s odd to ask: why do you want to be honest?
Is honest under such circumstances the right thing to do? hmmmm
on the other hand:
what gives us the right to say when to be honest and when to conceal the truth? Maybe lie?
one has to make up his own mind.
The Doctors ended up telling the parents and they came to a decision NOT to tell her that she has an XY chromosome.
Frances Peabody concluded a lecture called “the care of the patient” with these words:
“One of the essential qualities of the clinician is interest in humanity, for the secret of the care of the patient is in caring for the patient”
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5 comments:
If, she is a man, is he/she ready to reprodu ? y3ni can she-turned-into-he be able to live fully like man, n create a family !?
Frankly I’d rather know my true gender no matter what !
Interesting story, I for one know that I would rather know the truth other than keeping hope alive thinking that there might be a chance along the way
Devilish: good question, no she can not be turned to a man. she does not have any of the male organs.
Wardat_il'7leej: good point they made sure she knew that there is not a chance in the future. as far as i can recall I think she was at a high risk of developing cancer so they had to remove the ovaries.
The idea is: its not a matter of sex change its a matter of a new life after 25 years.
Preternatural_aL:
good observation. usually any female who reaches the age of 16-18 without getting her period should be investigated as (Primary Amenorrhea).
she didnt live in Britan all her life so not sure why she wasnt checked earlier.
but there is a similar case of a 24 yrs old in Tehran:
http://www.ams.ac.ir/AIM/0254/0254259.htm
This is really deep...sometime it essential for Doctor be more as human and less as a doctor..Did I put this right...
Now this is very confusing! :s
A hard decision to make indeed!
But I think not telling her was for the best since she doesn't has any male organs. As you mentioned, it's not a matter of changing the gender but more of a new life after 25 years!
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