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Swyer Syndrome Essay

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Usually women have two X chromosomes while men have one X chromosome and one Y chromosome. There are some cases where babies do not have any of these arrangements mentioned above (Through the Wormhole video). As people study these kind of cases, they have realized that there might be more than two sexes. For example, I learned that some women can be born with “Swyer syndrome”, which makes them anatomically and physiologically a female but they never achieve female sexual maturity (The Gene: An Intimate History). When their cells were examined, they discovered that they had XY chromosomes in their cells. Basically, they were chromosomally male but anatomically, physiologically, and psychologically female (The Gene: An Intimate History). Goodfellow discovered the SRY gene. This gene was the determinant of maleness but it was flicked off on women with Swyer …show more content…

These people were raised as girls but when they hit puberty they turned into boys (Through the Wormhole video). They had high levels of testosterone and their sex chromosomes were X and Y, although they were raised as girls. This happened because of DHT. DTH is a hormone that creates structures we associate with maleness. Guevedoces had a genetic mutation which prevented them from having or making DHT. This then affected the way they looked. Although they were raised as females, 95% of them transitioned to live as a male (Through the Wormhole video). This then resulted in the question about sex and gender. Biology says that sex is not as simple as the labels of male and female. For example, transgender people feel that their sex doesn’t really match who they are. People feel transgendered because they recognize their body, but they do not feel like it represents them (Through the Wormhole video). It’s like what they are seeing is them but not the real them. These examples also show that there are other possibilities apart from the two sexes we

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