Pedro Juan Perez grew up confused about his identity, said Becky Dickinson in the London Guardian. “I was skinny and hopeless at sport,” he says. “I preferred knitting.” At the age of 13, he collapsed while riding his bike, and doctors ordered a series of tests. “They diagnosed Klinefelter’s syndrome, which means I have three sex chromosomes, XXY, instead of the XY for a male or XX for a female. Physically I’m male, but genetically I’m male and female.”
The condition, which affects one in 1,000 boys, meant he’d never be able to have children. “I was devastated and burst into tears.” Perez was put on testosterone injections to induce puberty. But his parents refused to talk about the condition. “The only person I told was a priest, who offered to pray for me, but it wasn’t prayers I needed.”
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Gandhi arrests: Narendra Modi's 'vendetta' against India's oppositionThe Explainer Another episode threatens to spark uproar in the Indian PM's long-running battle against the country's first family
-
How the woke right gained power in the USUnder the radar The term has grown in prominence since Donald Trump returned to the White House
-
Codeword: April 24, 2025The Week's daily codeword puzzle
