Intersex is a broad term that covers a plethora of disorders and syndromes that result in a person being born with a sex anatomy does not match or define that of a male or female. These syndromes are congenital whether the defect is present at the time of birth or not. One may be born perfectly fine, but when puberty stage comes that is when the disorder is the most recognizable, or it can obvious the moment the child is born. From a chromosome defect, to a faulty gene, all of these disorders can alter a person’s life more than just physically. According to Genetics Home Reference, androgen insensitivity syndrome (AIS) is a condition that affects sexual development before birth and during puberty. Genetically, these individuals are males with one X and one Y chromosome. It is a mutation in the AR gene that causes AIS (Androgen insensitivity syndrome , 2008), AR gene is responsible for providing instructions for making a protein called androgen receptor. But due to their bodies being …show more content…
These “males” have a female appearance meaning their sex anatomy consists of that of a female, including a uterus and fallopian tubes. Unlike AIS where the individual has undescended testes, when someone has Swyer syndrome they do not have testes nor ovaries. Instead, they have undeveloped clumps of tissue called streak gonads (Swyer Syndrome, 2008). The streak gonads are incapable of producing the sex hormones needed for the onset of puberty. These people are often raised as females and undergo hormone therapy to start menstruation. If the individual does not participate in hormone replacement, he/she will not grow secondary sex characteristics such as breasts nor grow hair. Hormone replacement therapy also helps prevent reduced bone density (Swyer Syndrome, 2008). Without ovaries, the individual may not become pregnant unless an egg or embryo is