title: True hermaphroditism: clinical profile and management of six patients from North India.
abstract: True hermaphroditism (TH) is an uncommon cause of genital ambiguity. This is a retrospective compilation of six cases of true hermaphroditism seen at our institute over the last one and a half decades. Clinical presentation was wide-ranging, with age at presentation varying from 2 months to 41 years and symptoms ranging from ambiguous genitalia to a lower abdominal mass. All patients had perineoscrotal hypospadias with varying degrees of labioscrotal fusion. Clinically, gonads were not palpable in four cases and internally an ovotestis was observed in half of them. Karyotyping was 46, XX in all except one. The majority of the patients were reared as males. True hermaphroditism (TH) forms an important differential in the diagnostic algorithm of ambiguous genitalia especially if gonads are not palpable and congenital adrenal hyperplasia has been ruled out.
authors.affiliation: Department of Endocrinology, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, India. anilbhansali_endocrine@rediffmail.com
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bhansali
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mahadevan
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.forename: K L N
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Rao
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Garewal
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D050090:Ovotesticular Disorders of Sex Development / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000628:therapy*; D012189:Retrospective Studies