#cryptorchidism

Charlotte Wiltshire from the Hello Charlotte series is intersex, canonically transfeminine-coded, and her variation is Partial Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome (PAIS) with hypospadias, cryptorchidism, and a micropenis!

Intersex flag-only and popular transfem flag edits under the cut!

anyway, my testes were damaged due to cryptorchidism and delayed surgery. pre-HRT my body was fully male otherwise, although I always had quite feminine features, small hands and feet, narrow shoulders and so on.

does this sound like intersex to you? I'm wondering if maybe my feminine proportions and cryptorchidism had a common origin.

So for a second I was confused how your gonads making a lot of hormones would fall under HYPOgonadism, but then you mentioned SHBG and then I was like, ohhhhh. Yeah, that would be a way how. I actually relate, because I produced low amounts of total testosterone, but because I have severely deficient SHBG, my unbound testosterone (androgens that can be used by the body's tissues and thus virilize) was double the typical range for female-typed bodies, thus I had mild clinical hyperandrogenism without hyperandrogenemia (high T in blood. or. biochemical hyperandrogenism). So if you have the inverse, high SHBG thus low unbound T... well there you go hypogonadism/hypoandrogenism symptoms.

So, to put your situation into Terminology TM. You seem to have a form of hypergonadotropic hypogonadism! "Hypergonadotropic" meaning your brain is sending out hormones to try and communicate with your gonads to produce sex steroids (usually in excess, because the HPG axis is often stuck in a repeating loop of "no response? let's make more!"), but said sex steroids i.e. androgens estrogens and progestogens, aren't produced or the body can't respond to them— thus hypogonadism.

I adopted my male cat about a year ago when he was around two years old. In his health files I noticed he was described as having cryptochordism, with one testicle being undescended by the time he was neutered.

Do you know if this would count as an intersex variation among cats?? All the resources I could find online used slurs and referred to external and behavioral differences, which seem frankly irrelevant in his case.

Again I'm sorry if this is a bizarre thing to ask.

I've seen very conflicting information wether or not cryptochidism is under the intersex umbrella or only an indicator someone is more likely to be intersex. For context, I was born with chryptochidism and had surgery for it as a kid (something I only found out very recently, because i always wondered about the giant scar on my stomach). I had to do a karyotype thingie a few years ago for going on hrt (pronouns they/them) and it looked as expected, so no intersex markers there, but I had a somewhat minimal first puberty where I only got taller and my face changed with very little voice masculinazation, body hair and other typical stuff. Does stuff like that fall or likely fall under the intersex umbrella? I don't want to be disrespectful to actual intersex people at all.

Kindly, a confused enbie

There are many variations/conditions/etc that are debated as to whether or not they are intersex, both by intersex individuals and by people who are not intersex. One of the driving reasons behind such debates is because, if we counted many things as inherently intersex, the amount/percentage of people who are considered intersex would go up dramatically. Many people do not think that is a good thing.

I support intersex as a label, identity, and experience as being as broad as it needs to be. This blog is highly inclusive to what is considered intersex and does not gatekeep or label any variations/conditions/etc as not intersex. My stance is firmly that, if you feel your experiences are explained by being intersex, you very likely are. Knowing all of that is important because the information and answers I give to anyone on this blog are ALWAYS inclusive and inherently biased. There are less inclusive intersex and non-intersex people who will give you different answers. It is up to you and anyone who reads anything I post on this blog to determine where they fall on their stances in debates around intersexuality. But, as this is my blog, I will be posting with my bias and with the belief that my opinion is the "correct" or "better" one.

Many people do not consider cryptochidism as inherently intersex, however, cryptochidism is something that is a very common indicator, symptom, or comorbidity with different intersex variations. Having it can often result in genetic testing done (like you had!) to determine if there are any chromosomal differences or related things happening. Based on what it sounds like you're saying, you didn't have any genetic differences that would be an intersex variation (such as Kleinfelter's, which can have cryptochidism as an indicator of it). But again, cryptorchidism is something that often can indicate being intersex and it can be connected to some differences/variations in how one develops. I'd also like to note that surgery done for cryptorchidism is something that is debated as to whether or not it is necessary as research currently often suggests it is linked to an increase risk of cancer, but there are also researchers who argue against that.

I tend to define intersex as something along the lines of "variations of primary and/or secondary sex characteristics that are innate to a person when they are born or as they develop through their lives/puberty" noting the important exclusions of how HRT for trans+ transition can affect bodies in ways that would be considered intersex if they were "naturally" born that way, as well as noting many experiences that people might face such as genital surgery/modification/mutilation due to falling out of the "norm", being on HRT as a child, having atypical puberties, etc. There's some better definitions of it and some better definition I've personally written for it that I'm blanking on at the moment. But what I'm saying is, if you personally feel like your experiences align with being intersex, such as having "oddities" in the development of your secondary sex characteristics, then I encourage you to decide if you feel the intersex label fits for you and if you wish to use it. For some variations, it's much more "obvious" if someone is intersex or not (like many chromosomal differences or ovotestes), whereas for others, it's more "opt-in" on if you want to label with intersex or not.

Micropenis or chordee

Ambiguous genitalia

Gynecomastia (more breast tissue)

Hypospadias and epispidias where the urethral opening is not in its 'usual' location on the glans

Hypoandrogenism, low levels of hormones like testosterone

Hyperestrogenism, high levels of estrogens

Undescended testicle/testes (aka cryptorchidism), where the testicle/testes does not descend into the scrotum

PT: Agenital Spectrum Pride Flag /end PT

Agenital: an umbrella term in which one is born without visible genitals or without parts of ones genitals, due to being abnormally closed, underdeveloped, or absent (genital aplasia). The variation does not usually occur by itself, but is usually coupled with other intersex variations.

The flag was coined by Tumblr user idvault.

Mulleripathian subsets

PT: Mulleripathian subsets /end PT

Vaginal aplasia or vaginal agenesis is when someone with a female-like body has little to no genitallia.

Vaginal hypoplasia is a term for when someone with a female-like body has an underdeveloped vagina.

Labial Hypoplasia is a subset of vaginal hypoplasia in which one is missing one or both labia.

Clitoral Hypoplasia is a subset of vaginal hypoplasia in which one has an underdeveloped or small clitoris.

Clitoral Aplasia is a subset of vaginal hypoplasia in which one does not develop a clitoris.

Wolffipathian subsets

PT: Wolffipathian subsets /end PT

Penile agenesis or penile aplasia is a term for when someone with a male-like body has no genitallia.

Penile hypoplasia is a term for when someone with a male-like body has an underdeveloped penis.

Micropenis is a term for when one with a male-like body who has an unusually small penis, usually due to another intersex trait, however this is not always the case.

Cryptorchidism is a term for when one with a male-like body is missing one or more testicle, or when one or more of the testicles have formed fully within the body rather than outside.

Monorchidism is a term for when one with a male-like body has a single testicle. They are typically fertile, as their single testicle is usually functioning.

Microorchidism is a term for when one with a male-like body has unusually small testicles. One with this variation typically has a lack of masculine horomones released due to the decreased size and functionality, which often leads one to have more feminized traits.

Ambiguous subsets

PT: Ambiguous subsets /end PT

Aphallia is a term for someone who is born without a phallis. This includes penile agenesis and clitoral aplasia.

Urethral Agenesis is a term for someone who is born without a urethra.

October 18 

The kiddo's school started in-person instruction at the beginning of last week for the youngest kids and special education students, the ones they wanted to get in-person fastest, the ones hopefully least susceptible to COVID. Today we got a message that all the first grade classes are going remote again because someone tested positive for COVID. That was very quick! It's pretty much exactly what I figured would happen when in-person school started again, lots of stops and starts, switching back and forth from remote to classroom. It makes me glad that kiddo is virtual-only this semester. School from home is tough, but it can only be tougher if everyone is forced to pivot over and over again every time someone needs to quarantine. It's not a situation with any good answers, and I just hope that nobody else at school tests positive for awhile at least. 

Anyway, today was Sunday, so it was medical day at the cat rescue and time for the kittens to get more vaccines! They each got two shots, another deworming, and more Revolution. Menolly was big enough this time to get everything the others were getting. She is a sturdy two pounds, ten ounces now, which puts her way behind her ginormous brother Robinton (four pounds!) but fairly close to where she ought to be for her age. She'll still be a little behind the curve next month, but she's just a petite girl with an awesome appetite. Audiva is just a whiff under three pounds, exactly on schedule, and Sebell is nearly four pounds. The boys are big enough for their neuter surgery, but they both have only one testicle descended so far. This is called cryptorchidism and usually corrects itself by four months, but if it doesn't it can complicate a neuter surgery. They'll have to wait just a little longer. That's okay though, because our rescue will not adopt tuxies or black cats out during October except to trusted repeat adopters, so they'd likely be waiting anyway. 

Getting vaccines makes the kittens logy and slow for the rest of the day, but they were mostly feeling better by dinnertime. They'll be leaving me tomorrow or the next day to go to big kitten foster and meet up with their three siblings who went to another bottlefeeder way back in the day. It's very unlikely they will recognize one another but because they are all the same age, they should make good playmates. The kiddo is bummed about the kittens leaving, especially since we won't be getting new ones for awhile, but I've been reminding him for several weeks that goodbye is the goal, and we've already had these kittens longer than any orphan litter I've raised. They are eleven weeks old and we've had them since two weeks old! 

I spent several hours today reading through the training manual for officers of election. I got the big binder this time, more comprehensive than the ones I have gotten for previous elections because I am training to be a procedural specialist. I read through the entire manual once to get a feel for it, and I will be going back and concentrating on the things I'm most likely to have to deal with, like provisional ballots. We aren't allowed to write in the manuals because they get updated and reused from election to election, which is sort of a bummer. I need to get some post-it notes! I also spent some time laughing over the document that shows ballot examples for hand-counting, and what sorts of terrible dumb markings can be counted as votes and which ones can't. My favorites were probably the ballot where the voter wrote MY GUY in dark letters over the name of their favored candidate, and the one who just wrote HER on the bottom of the ballot with an arrow to their choice. Both of those would count as votes in a hand count, btw.