ABC News has posted an article and an excellent video about a woman with AIS. The syndrome involves a person with XY (normally male) chromosomes, whose body is unable to process testosterone. At birth their external plumbing looks entirely female. It’s only when they fail to enter puberty that the syndrome is normally detected. The search for ovaries finds internal testicles – producing testosterone which does nothing to the body.

AIS is not rare, but is seldom spoken of. It demonstrates the greater gender diversity of humanity than the standard two pigeon holes.

The video (after a compulsory ad viewing) is a case study of one individual.

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/MedicalMys ... 752&page=1

This is an excellent video.

I have an acquaintance with AIS who views herself as a woman but with a difference. She has no problem acknowledging that she is not entirely female at all but fits somewhere in between male and female, although decidedly more female. Gender is indeed a complex thing.

We all start out as female in the womb. Female is essentially the default state in early fetal development. It is only the influence of testosterone that causes most XY fetuses to develop as males. The fact that AIS essentially short-circuits this because the fetus cannot respond to testosterone is proof that genetics alone (in particular the sex chromosomes) is insufficent to explain male and female gender differentiation, let alone gender variations existing between those poles.