Raised in the Wrong Sex: A Case Study

Abstract

This report describes the psychological and social effects of a change of gender, undergone by a black Zimbabwian subject. The subject was identified as a male at birth, and reared as such in a society in which the differentiation between male and female social roles is more incisive than is generally the case in modern Western society. The appearance at adolescence of gender-incongruent physical secondary sex characteristics, and the comprehensive physical and psychological examinations that were subsequently performed, showed ‘him’ to be essentially feminine, however. Hence, after minor genital surgery, the subject was re-registered as a female and retested 16 months after her reassignment of sex. The subject showed marked improvement in the pattern of serious intrapsychic maladjustment evinced on initial testing, but a deterioration in social behaviour. These findings indicate that differences in psychosexual orientation and behaviour have a biological basis, and are not wholly learned and/or imprinted.