The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Rare surgery performed at Guntur GGH

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Sunday, May 18, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Rare surgery performed at Guntur GGH

P. Samuel Jonathan

The person was suffering from dual sex problem

- Photo: T. Vijaya Kumar

Dr. Ch. Vasanth Kumar explaining the procedure.

GUNTUR: Doctors at the Government General Hospital here have successfully performed a rare surgery on a 25-year-old person, suffering from dual sex problems and removed his female genital organs.

In medical parlance, the condition is termed female pseudo hermaphrodite, a rare deformity found in persons suffering from Congenital Adernogenital Hyperplasia, a defect caused by a block in the conversion of 17-hydroxyprogesterone hormone. Persons suffering from the abnormality show secondary sexual characters of both male and female sexes.

The surgery, called Total Abdominal Hysterectomy was performed by a team of doctors belonging to Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology and comprised Head of the Department, Ch. Vasanth Kumar, GGH Superintendent D. Phanibhushan and P. Chandrasekhar on May 9.

Explaining the case Dr. Vasanth Kumar said the person hailing from Nalgonda district came to the GGH on April 12 with severe abdominal pain. He was the second among four siblings, all females.

The person had attained puberty at 13 years and had been having menstrual cycles. He however, had hair over chin, upper lip and prominent thyroid cartilage, all prominent secondary sexual characteristics of males.

Further examinations showed that the person had female genital organs too, fused labia majora, a well developed uterus, ovaries, fallopian tubes and an enlarged clitoris.

During menstrual cycles, blood was found oozing from an aperture below the phallus.

“We decided to perform surgery primarily to relieve him of his pain. The choice of change of sex was left to the person and he opted for male. We have also kept in mind the thumb rule that rearing sex, which was male, should not be changed,” Mr. Vasanth Kumar added.

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