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| Above, Catherine and his cousin Carla, who is currently undergoing the transition |
In a tiny village in the Dominican Republic where babies born apparently female are turning into men at puberty due to a genetic deformity.
Around two per cent - or one in 90 - babies from Salinas are thought to be born with the condition, which occurs due to a missing enzyme during pregnancy.
The transition is so common the children are referred to as Guevedoces, or 'penis at 12 years'.
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Credit: BBC
He said: 'I went to school and I used to wear my skirt. I never liked to dress as a girl.'When they bought me girls' toys I never bothered playing with them - when I saw a group of boys I would stop to play ball with them.'
Another boy, named Carla, said he is also going through the same transition aged nine after appearing to be born a girl.
Pictures show Carla, who will change his name to Carlos, wearing a pink patterned top with his hair in bunches as he smiles alongside his cousin Catherine.
The condition was first discovered in the 1970s after a scientist from Cornell visited the island.
Babies usually form male sex organs after around eight weeks in the womb, with the change triggered by hormone dihydro-testosterone.
Some experts have suggested there is such a high concentration of children affected in Salinas due to the village's isolation.
The extraordinary condition will be explored by Dr Michael Mosley on BBC Two's Countdown to Life - The Extraordinary Making of You tomorrow night.
According to the BBC's website, the programme 'explores how this remarkable human diversity is so crucial to our species, but [also shows] that these complex processes can occasionally go wrong'.
Read more:
- The astonishing village where little girls turn into boys aged 12 - Telegraph
- The extraordinary case of the Guevedoces - BBC News
Credit: BBC
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