The First Question
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"Is it a boy or a girl?" This is the first thing many parents want to know about their newborn children, and it is typically the easiest question to answer. Just sneak a peek at the child's genitals and there is a proud papa who can not wait to play ball with his son, or an excited mother who envisions sharing secrets with her teenage daughter. But what happens when the doctors don't know if the child needs a blue bonnet or pink one? There are a small percentage of children born with physical disorders which may cause confusion as to the sex of the child. For example, there are conditions in which the physiological sex is ambiguous, like pseudo-or false hermaphrodites where, due to chromosomal abnormalities, the appearance of male and female genitals are both present at birth. Two of these conditions are called Turner's or Klinefelter's syndromes. There are also disorders of the metabolism, such as androgen insensitivity syndrome and adrenogenital syndrome. Finally, may also be effects from the hormone imbalance in the fetus or the placenta. Any of these conditions would cause great confusion as to the sex of the child...