BBC reporters have discovered an astoundingly rare genetic anomaly in a village in the Dominican Republic. In the little tropical island village, the female sex organs of 1 out of every 90 girls change to male ones once they hit puberty.
This was the case with 24-year-old Johnny. Right now he is like any other man in the physical sense, with the sole difference that just several years ago he was actually a girl. His sex changed when he was a teenager.
Johnny was not the only kid to experience such a phenomenal transformation. The village, located in the southern part of the Dominican Republic, is no stranger to such cases and the locals there call these kids "guevedoces", which means "penis at 12".
Even though he is now a man, Johnny was born a girl and was given the name Felicitia. He remembers how during his days as a girl he would wear red dresses but always preferred to play with the boys, rather than the girls.
The change in his body began at age 12 and while all the other teenagers complained of acne, a changing voice and mood swings, the physical changes in Johnny were significantly more dramatic.
Johnny's vagina transformed into a penis on its own, he grew testes and instead of female sexual characteristics, he had male ones - both primary and secondary.
The scientists who studied Johnny and kids like him say that the shocking natural transformation is due to a genetic anomaly.
The problem lies in the Y-chromosome which leads to the production of large amounts of male sex hormones, in turn causing the formation of the male sex organs.
The Y-chromosome of girls who turn into boys lack the enzyme 5-α-reductase, which controls testosterone and dihydrotestosterone levels in the body.
Testosterone levels surge once a person hits puberty and when the required enzyme for controlling these levels is missing, they rise to several times beyond normal levels, leading to the girls turning into boys.
Even though the transition is psychologically horrifying to the youths, boys like Johnny manage to grow up healthy without any lasting physical trauma, but as representatives of the opposite sex.
