COMPLETE SEX REVERSAL: A CASE REPORT

Abstract

A 13-year-old girl with failure of growth and lack of sexual development was observed. No nuclear sex chromatin was demonstrated on bucchal and vaginal smears (a male pattern). Laparotomy revealed female internal genitalia and multiple biopsies showed normal ovarian tissue. This is the 1st reported case of a female with male chromatin and without phallic enlargement or stigmata of Turner''s syndrome. If nuclear sex chromatin does represent true chromosomal sex, then it appears that complete sex reversal occurred. This would indicate a bipotentiality of the primitive germ cells which can be influenced by factors other than simple local presence or absence of testes.