She left the office, pledging to remain in close contact. Later that week, I received the results of the awaited tests. Her serum testosterone was greatly elevated for a woman. The two lumps were, in all likelihood, testicles that had never descended. The disorder is an odd one.
Affected individuals have the genetic material of a male, yet are phenotypically female.
They appear female, are raised as female, behave and believe as female, and for all intents and purposes are female. The individuals, seen by themselves and by others as female, become females. Yet, as is clear with the case of Mary, they don't menstruate, they are sterile, and they lack a uterus, ovaries, and tubes. The issues were complex, the solutions difficult. I had entered the gray area of medicine where right and wrong were not obvious, and where revealing the truth was not necessarily the best policy.