World media abuzz with ´penis at twelve´ disorder in Dominican SW

Santo Domingo.- Themanifestation of a rare genetic disorder in children in southwestern DominicanRepublic has the global media abuzz Monday, which according to syracuse.com, “boysare born female and become male at puberty.”

The phenomena aren’t new:Dominican physicians had been aware of the anomaly for over a decade, andconcluded that the genetic disorder was the result of extensive gypsum mining nearthe village Salinas, Barahona, in the rugged sothwest

Citing a report byThe Telegraph, the outlet says the village of Salinas sees girls turning intoboys so often that it is no longer "abnormal."

In fact event theterm the villagers use to describe youngsters with the anomaly, ´guevedoce,”can be loosely translated as meaning “penis at twelve.”

The term hermaphroditehad also been used to describe the boys, who were born with no apparent penis.

“The genetic disorderstems from a missing enzyme which prevents the production of a specificform of the male sex hormone — dihydro-testosterone — in the womb. Some malebabies are missing the enzyme that triggers hormones, so they appear to be bornfemale with no testes and what appears to be a vagina,” syracuse.com said.

In October, 2002, outletmundo.es published “Both sexes, one body,” a report about “the village ofhermaphrodites.”

“The children ofTeresa haven’t been sexually defined for years. They have vulva and testicles.This is so common in the south of the Dominican Republic that merited research.”