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Lorna, Jessie, Sal and Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia
DOI link for Lorna, Jessie, Sal and Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia
Lorna, Jessie, Sal and Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia book
Lorna, Jessie, Sal and Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia
DOI link for Lorna, Jessie, Sal and Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia
Lorna, Jessie, Sal and Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia book
ABSTRACT
In genetic female foetuses with classical congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH), the adrenal gland’s overproduction of testosterone produces varying degrees of virilization of the developing external genitalia. Genetic female infants experiencing a salt-wasting crisis after birth will be diagnosed as having CAH, and will be most usually assigned female, with surgery/hormone treatment to ‘feminize’ their ambiguous or fully virilized genitals. Jessie, who was named sometime after her birth, had no vaginal opening, an enlarged clitoris and almost-separate labia. An ultrasound indicated the presence of a uterus and ovaries, and a genetic test revealed that Jessie is a genetic female. Sal is about twenty years older than Kellie and Jessie, and describes the clitoral amputation she went through at three months of age as ‘traumatic’. Creighton called for a long-term study of the outcomes of surgical management of conditions such as Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia exactly because that management remains controversial.