Sexual identification in girls with congenital adrenal hyperplasia

Abstract

The authors draw up a medical and psycological balance of 7 girls with congenital adrenal hyperplasia by 21 hydroxylase defect, who became adults, among a total of 50 cases. All patients have a normal sexual life and 5 of them are married and have sons. The different phases of sexual identification have been retrospectively analyzed in the 7 patients with the help of their doctors, parents and their own evidence. An error, the only one, in the selection of sex needed a change in the official register at 3 months of age. The uncertainty about the wrong sex upset more to mothers than patients, who does not seem to have important problems about their sexual identification. On the contrary, there is a direct or indirect correlation between the social behaviour disturbs of girls and the imbalance of parents that they suffer secondary to the disease.