Aligarh university surgeons correct rare intersex disorder

LUCKNOW - Doctors at Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College of the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) have successfully carried out a corrective surgery on a 20-year-old woman, diagnosed with a rare physical disorder of having male organs instead of uterus and ovaries.

“It is described as the partial androgen insensitivity syndrome where the clitoris is large or, alternatively, the penis is small and hypospadic. We began the operation Saturday afternoon and it carried on till late night,” Dr. Arshad Hafeez Khan, chairman of the college’s plastic surgery department, told IANS over phone.

A team of doctors successfully removed the testes and a functional vaginal canal was created. “The male organ was successfully transformed into a clitoris,” Khan added.

The woman could now lead a normal sexual life but she will not be able to conceive throughout her life, he said.

The disorder came to light when her husband sent her back to her house barely a day after their marriage. The woman belongs to a poor rural family and it was after this incident that her parents brought her to the doctors for treatment.