(from Spanish: güevedoce, from Dominican Spanish güevos a los doce “testicles at twelve”)
Refers to children in the Dominican Republic who are classified as girls at birth but develop male genitalia around age 12 due to a deficiency in the enzyme 5α-reductase
Cultural Recognition: recognized as a third sex. Anne Fausto-Sterling states that güevedoces (as well as people in Papua New Guinea with 5α-reductase deficiency) “are recognised as a third sex” by their cultures, while the cultures “nevertheless recognize only two gender roles”
Scientific Discovery: Julianne Imperato-McGinley’s 1970s research identified 5α-Reductase deficiency as the cause, with a high occurrence ratio in Las Salinas, Dominican Republic. (1 in 90 unaffected males)
In contrast to immediate surgeries in countries like the United States, güevedoces in the Dominican Republic experience ambivalent gender socialization and often self-identify as men in adulthood (but not necessarily treated as such by the society)
In other countries
Papua New Guinea, where it is called kwolu-aatmwol (translation: a female thing changing into a male thing)