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The Chinese woman was diagnosed with congenital adrenal hyperplasia.
Right before her wedding, the 27-year-old woman underwent a test, revealing her condition.
How would you react if you discovered an unimaginable truth about yourself? That truth might change your whole identity, your whole self in your own eyes. Something like that was experienced by a woman in China who was told that she was a man right before her wedding.
The woman was identified as 27-year-old Li Yuan (name changed to protect her identity), a resident of the Hubei province, in central China. As per reports by the South China Morning Post, an examination revealed that she carries a testicle in her abdomen, which makes her a biological male.
The reports stated further that Yuan had been worried about not menstruating and delayed breast development since her days of puberty. At the age of 18, she visited a hospital where she was diagnosed with abnormal hormonal levels and ovarian failure. Doctors asked her to undergo a follow-up chromosome test but Yuan did not take it seriously at the time. She only decided to get a thorough examination of her body only recently while she was planning her wedding.
A veteran gynaecologist named Duan Jie conducted the examination and diagnosed Li Yuan with a rare disorder called congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH). The results of the test confirmed the condition after a month-long wait. According to the test, Li Yuan carried male sex hormones but had the appearance of a female. Dr Duan stated, “Socially, Li is female. But chromosomally, she is male.”
Naturally, the information came as a shock to Yuan, making it hard for her to accept it, as she is someone who lived as a woman for 27 years. According to reports, only 1 in 50,000 infants show this form of CAH. Both of Yuan’s parents had recessive disorder-causing genes. Because of that, she had a one out of four chance of developing this condition. Yuan also has vitamin D deficiency as well as osteoporosis, due to her condition being diagnosed late. Earlier in April, she had the testicle removed as it posed the risk of cancer, according to the doctors.