True hermaphroditism

Testis and epididymis
Intersex syndromes
True hermaphroditism

Author: Turki Al-Hussain, M.D. (see Authors page)

Revised: 5 April 2017, last major update September 2012

Copyright: (c) 2002-2017, PathologyOutlines.com, Inc.

PubMed Search: True hermaphroditism [title]

Table of Contents

Definition / general | Treatment | Microscopic (histologic) description | Microscopic (histologic) images | Differential diagnosis

Cite this page: True hermaphroditism. PathologyOutlines.com website. http://www.pathologyoutlines.com/topic/testistruehermaph.html. Accessed July 15th, 2017.

Definition / general

Unequivocal ovarian and testicular tissue in same patient, occuring as either bilateral or unilateral ovatestes or as a testis opposite an ovary, regardless of karyotype
Ovary is usually normal; testis usually lacks spermatogonia
No streak gonads present; usually no associated gonadoblastomas
Usually no other developmental malformations and patients may have normal sexual and reproductive functions

Treatment

After assign gender, remove inappropriate gonad and biopsy remaining tissue

Microscopic (histologic) description

Ovarian compartment has numerous primordial follicles with primary oocytes and a few primary or antral follicles (Mod Pathol 2002;15:1013)

Microscopic (histologic) images

Images hosted on other servers:

Three ovarian follicles

Hyperchromatic sertoli cells

Ovarian follicles

Ovotestis

Differential diagnosis

Mixed gonadal dysgenesis: histology is important in distinguishing these diagnoses, clinical features are not