The astonishing village where little girls turn into boys aged 12


In a remote village in the Dominican Republic girls become boys at puberty because of a rare genetic disorder, Sarah Knapton reports for London’s Telegraph.












A little girl named Carla is currently going through the same transformation, aged nine. Despite being brought up as a girl, his mother noticed that from the age of five he was more inclined towards the rough and tumble play of little boys. He has recently had his hair cut shirt after wearing plaits for years.

“I feel like a man now,” he said.

Many decide not to change from their female names, so some men in Salinas have names like Catherine.

The guevedoces were first discovered by a Cornell University endocrinologist Dr Julianne Imperato in the 1970s who travelled to Dominican Republic after hearing strange rumours about girls turning into boys.

Further cases have since been seen in the Sambian villages of Papua New Guinea although the Sambians view the children as flawed males and they are often shunned, unlike the Dominicans who welcome the transformation with widespread celebration.

Dr Mosley said: “I hated going through puberty; voice cracking, swinging moods, older brother laughing at me. But compared to Johnny, I had it easy.


“When Dr Imperato investigated the Guavadoces she discovered the reason they don’t have male genitalia at birth is because they are deficient in an enzyme called 5-α-reductase, which normally converts testosterone into dihydro-testosterone.

“By a quirk of chance Dr Imperato’s research was picked up by the American pharmaceutical giant, Merck. They used her discovery to create a drug called finasteride, which blocks the action of 5-α-reductase.

“It is now widely used to treat benign enlargement of the prostate and male pattern baldness. For which, I’m sure, many men are truly grateful.”

Around one in 90 children in Salinas are guevedoces and although they resemble sexually normal males, subtle differences do still exist in adulthood. Most have decreased amounts of facial hair and smaller prostate glands relative to the average male.

It is thought that the condition has persisted through generations because of the isolation of the villagers. Because the disorder is so widespread and accepted, the Dominican Republic now believes that there are three sexual categories, male, female, and pseudohermaphrodite.

“Countdown to Life – the extraordinary making of you “ on Monday 21st September, BBC2, 9pm.

For the original report go to

2 thoughts on “The astonishing village where little girls turn into boys aged 12

  1. It is similar to hermaphroditism. It is a genetic anomaly that was first introduced by the Spanish in this region during early migration and the slave trade. It evolved out of a virus that affects the pituitary gland. I covered this abnormality in some of my earlier research. This is not and never will be “natural” regardless of how accepted it is. These children will develop all kinds of problems later in life and are usually sterile. This can also occur in areas exposed to radioactive wastes and nuclear fallout from industrial wastes. It is no different than what is happening to children in the Middle East and Africa and other regions of the world where nuclear fallout from military munitions and industrial pollution is altering reproductive organs and causing all other kinds of birth defects. Dr. Khelama

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