Anybody familiar with this?

Urogenital does not relate to the bowels. It relates to the body parts concerned with urinating and conceiving children. In the male, one of the most common urogenital issues is hypospadias. Hypospadias refers to the urinary opening being in the wrong place on the penis and, sometimes, to an abnormally curved penis. Hypospadias can be a minor problem or a serious one. Untreated, it can make toilet training difficult and, later, impair fertility. In terms of treatment, one surgery or more than one surgery may be needed. Urogenital abnormalities can also refer to conditions in which the external genitals are ambiguous. The abnormalities may or may not be associated with any internal or genetic abnormalities. In rare cases, there may be a discrepancy between the genetic gender and the gender suggested by the abnormally formed external genitalia. This is sometimes called "intersex disorder." If you are seriously interested in adopting this child, talk to the agency representing him/her and get more information about the specific problem that he/she has. Then do your homework, talking to doctors, etc. Also, think about how you will handle the psychological issues related to raising a child with a "sensitive" medical problem. Sharon

Thank you! Obviously we were more clueless than originally thought lol.....On another agency's website the child was listed as having ambiguous genitalia. While it looks scary, we think we could handle the condition. They list the child as being a specific gender, and I trust they are right as the child seems all boy/girl just from the picture & description. But I could be wrong. We will think about it and do more research before we request the child's profile. In the meantime, has anyone adopted kids with this? (In order to somewhat protect the child's identity I will not say if he/she is a boy/girl. Thanks for understanding and I hope I didn't make it to comfusing!)

I have a close friend that adopted a girl with this condition. She is 100% girl through and through. They did do an ultrasound to see if all the female internal organs are present and it appeared as they were, yet very small and maybe too young to tell for sure. This little girl is bright and delightful. Nobody knows that she was SN.

Let me suggest that you schedule an appointment with a doctor familiar with these sorts of problems, who can acquaint you with the medical, social, and psychological issues of children who come home with ambiguous genitalia. Then you can make a more informed decision about whether you can meet such a child's needs. Sharon

Is this a boy or girl? I have a son with hypospadius...where the urethra does not end at the tip of the penis....this could be something that a child has surgery for and then is completely normal.

There are four types of intersex disorder: a. 46, XX Intersex b. 46, XY Intersex c. True Gonadal Intersex d. Complex or Undetermined Intersex In 46, xx intersex, the external genitals may appear more male than female, but the child is genetically female and usually has ovaries, Fallopian tubes, and uterus. In many cases, this is caused by a condition called congenital adrenal hyperplasia, where the adrenal gland lacks an enzyme needed to produce two hormones, cortisol and aldosterone. There is one form of 46, xx intersex where the child appears female until puberty, and then starts developing male characteristics because there is a deficiency of aromatase, an enzyme that converts male hormones to female hormones. In 46, xy intersex, the person is genetically male, but has female or ambiguous external genitals. This can have many causes. In some cases, the testes are incompletely formed or absent, and unable to produce enough male hormones. In other cases, one or more enzymes may be absent. And in still other cases, the hormones are normal, but the hormone receptors are not. In this case, the cause can be one of about 150 defects. True gonadal intersex means that a person has both ovarian and testicular tissue. The person may be genetically female, genetically male, or genetically ambiguous. The person may have one ovary and one testis, or a single organ that produces both male and female hormones. The external genitals may look male, female, or ambuiguous. Complex intersex disorder is any disorder that doesn't fall into the above categories. Usually, there is a chromosomal abnormality. The child may have only one x chromosome, for example, or may have an extra sex chromosome, either x or y. The internal and external genitals usually "match", but there may be problems with sexual development, sex hormone levels, and so on. Incompletely formed or wrong-gender external genitalia can be corrected with plastic surgery. Some hormone treatments are effective in certain forms of intersex disorder. But, overall, these problems are very complex and have psychological implications. Traditionally, doctors advised parents to assign a gender to an intersex child at birth and raise him/her that way, with surgery if appropriate. They also tended to recommend, in some cases where gender was completely unclear, that the family assign a child to be a female, as the surgery to create a vagina was considered "easier" than the surgery to create a functioning penis. In some areas, China may still be operating under these principles. However, in the U.S., many doctors recommend waiting as long as possible before making a definite gender assignment and performing surgery. They want to see the child's gender identity develop and, if possible, to elicit the child's opinion. This makes a lot of sense, but means that an adoptive family will need to be able to deal well with questions and comments from outsiders about a child's gender, as well as to be sensitive to the fact that their child is "different" and may get teased by peers and so on. All in all, intersex disorder is complex and sensitive, and needs to be treated by extremely well-qualified professionals, such as geneticists, endocrinologists, plastic surgeons, and psychiatrists. Before committing to adopt a child with intersex disorder, especially one where the full extent of the problem may not be known until the child comes to the U.S., a family should be very sure that insurance will pay for the necessary testing and treatments, which can be expensive. Since intersex disorder, and especially the more complex forms of the problem, may not be well understood by insurance companies, they may refuse to pay, at least initially. And of course, any family planning to adopt a child with intersex disorder needs to be comfortable dealing with the physical and emotional issues. It isn't just a case of a small penis or a large clitoris. There can be issues that exist at the chromosomal level, at the very core of a child's being, as well as issues related to important enzymes and hormones produced by various organs. And it isn't just a question of whether to dress the child in pink or blue; Gender identity is a very significant component of who a child is, and making bad decisions early on will have lifelong implications. Sharon

Do be aware that there are cases in which the Chinese doctors performed surgery on a child with ambiguous genitalia, to make him/her a specific gender, but without ensuring that the new gender matched the child's genetic gender. As an example, a child might be male genetically, but have a very tiny penis; the doctor might have removed it and created a urinary and vaginal opening, without realizing that the child was male by genetics and preference.