Thread by @FondOfBeetles

On people with intersex conditions that could encompass ball waxing, a penis, tampons and pregnancy.

TLDR: Nope.

Here’s a rundown on reproductive development. Gonads are first on the agenda; bipotential tissue differentiates into testes or ovaries (very rarely, a mixture of both cell types).

Second up is internal genitalia, developing from one half of a paired structure on each side of our bodies. We all have both male and female precursors; our gonad type favours development of one and destroys the other.

Finally, external genitalia. Like gonads, this is a single tissue pushed one way or the other.

So, let’s begin.

Congenital adrenal hyperplasia/XX/high T in utero. Female gonads + female internal genitalia. Clitoris can, extremely rarely, resemble a penis.

Labia may be fused and look like scrotum (devoid of ‘balls’ because they are actually ovaries still in the regular ovary place).

In CAH females with fused labia, menstruation requires surgical intervention to open the vaginal cavity. At this point, the illusion of balls ceases to exist.

Persistent Müllerian Duct Syndrome/XY/no hormone to destroy internal female genitalia. Males with normal male development from gonads to penis. They may also permit some female-typical internal genitalia eg rudimentary uterus. Yes, it can shed.

In PMDS males, shedding uterus manifests as blood in urine. Pink pee. No male uses a tampon to deal with this, unless niche fetish context. Pregnancy? Medical miracle, but theoretically possible.

But unlikely. Their route to parenthood is via their functional sperm and functional penis. They don’t make eggs.

Ovotestis/mostly XX/mixed gonad development. Patients have both ovarian and testes tissue. Development downstream of gonads (internal then external genitalia) depends on dominant gonad type, which side/s the difference tissues are on - complicated.

If there are bilateral balls, they are both predominantly testicular in identity, because ovaries don’t descend. Predominantly functional testes + penis = unlikely female internal genitalia. No uterus, no menstruation, no pregnancy.

Um, chimerism (think: absorbed twin). Male absorbs female at a developmental time and in a regionally appropriate fashion that can confer two separate reproductive systems in the same body.

This would be, I think, utterly unique. Chimerism exists, but I’ve never seen a report involving two different reproductive systems (unless lab generated). It’s usually more like ‘mixed blood results’ or ‘different colour eyes’.

So, developing a penis/balls that can be waxed, and a vulva/uterus through which one can menstruate in a tampon-necessary fashion is, I think, a situation that would attract global attention.

And not just because you’re sitting in Mom’s basement wearing a bad wig. Being a pedo.

No names.

I could have been more expansive here.

Because the penis/scrotum in males and clitoris/vulva in females is moulded from the same tissue, it is impossible to develop both sets of external genitalia.

Broadly and non-technically, if you make a penis, you’ve used the starting tissue, and there isn’t anything to make a clitoris with.

To have both would need two sets of starting material (see: chimerism below).