We have never seen that before….

Do I or don’t I have a condition? — A story of discovery

Christine Penn
12 min readNov 13, 2023
Photo by Emily Morter on Unsplash

Who do you trust? Who do you believe? Am I crazy? Did that really just happen? Why didn’t they tell me when they suspected something? Do I need to find another doctor? Why do I have these problems?

These are just some of the questions you could find yourself asking. And they are going to drive you crazy. And just when you think you have the answer, you and others may start questioning things again.

This is what life with my particular type of DSD has been. That is, if I actually have one. Can’t say that there are not still questions.

Sidebar for those not familiar with the DSD term. It stands for Differences in Sexual Development. A more encompassing term linking in various conditions like Intersex, and more traditional cases like Disorders of Sexual Development, Diverse Sex Development and/or Variations in Sex Characteristics (VSC). Here’s the Wikipedia definition for it.

The medical condition

I seem to have issues with my Adrenal glands not working quite right. Most of these issues fall under a grouping of conditions known as Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia.

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Christine Penn
Christine Penn

Written by Christine Penn

Trans woman, parent, cyclist, software engineer, author, chef, and many other things.