When Juliana Imperato-McGinley went to Las Salinas in the early 1970s, she had no idea she was about to put the pharmaceutical company Merck on the trail of a blockbuster. In this small village in the Dominican Republic, a young endocrinologist from New York University wants to solve a mystery: children here are born girls and become boys in their teens. They are called “güevedoces”, “male at 12”. There is approximately 1 güevedoce for every 90 boys in the village.
Guvedocs look like little girls at birth and grow up as such. But “during pubertywrites the Imperato-McGinley team Science 1974 their voice becomes deeper and they develop a typical male phenotype with a significant increase in muscle mass; there is no breast enlargement. The phallus grows into a functional penis.”
In the womb
The scrotum becomes rough and hyperpigmented, the testicles descend, ejaculation occurs…
Source: Le Figaro
