Current Concepts of Sexual Abnormalities

Abstract

The gonads, germ cells, and internal and external genital systems are bipotential early in fetal life. Failure to develop in a manner which corresponds to the genetic sex usually results in gonadal or genital abnormalities. Recent progress has clarified the patterns of sexual development, and it is possible to diagnose and treat most of these abnormalities early in life.

Turner's syndrome, true hermaphroditism, Klinefelter syndrome, and pseudohermaphroditism are discussed in relation to normal sexual development, which is categorically divided into six phases.