Back when you were in your mothers womb, you were a girl. We were all girls. Its only until roughly 6 weeks in that males differentiate and start developing male features.
By know you should know that in all cells, there are chromosomes. In you there are 46. In your sex cells (sperm/egg) there are 23.
These two meet to make a full 46
If you look at a male, and a female, you’ll see a lot of difference. The deep voice, hair, amount of muscle, sexual organs and skeletal structure.
However, the only thing that makes you male, is one chromosome. Females have XX, while males have XY.
It’s that Y chromosome which makes you a male.
So how does the Y chromosome make the baby male?
If we look at the Y chromosome, we will see the genes which code for the male sex hormones.
If these hormones are not produced, then the embryo will continue to develop into a female.
Producing these hormones is only part of the development, a lot can go wrong during fetal and gender development.
You my have heard of Olympic athlete Caster Semenya. In the 2012 Olympics, she got gold in the women’s 800 meters.
However soon after she was asked to take part in a gender test.
A look at her chromosomes reviled, that she had an X and a Y chromosome.
Her phenotype (how she looked) was female, while her genotype (genetic makeup) was male.
What happened here?
Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome (AIS) is a disorder which stops cell producing Androgen receptors.
With out the correct receptors, the cells don’t get the messages to develop male characteristics, and continue to develop female characteristics in the womb.
This is a rare condition, happening to only 1 in 20,000 people.
