Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Cat with XY sex reversal and mixed male-female reproductive organs
By Schlafer, D H et al.Ā·Published in Veterinary pathologyĀ·2011Ā·Department of Biomedical Sciences, United StatesĀ·View original on PubMed ā
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Original publication title: A case of SRY-positive 38,XY true hermaphroditism (XY sex reversal) in a cat.
- Species:
- cat
Plain-English summary
A 1-year-old mixed-breed cat was brought in for neutering and was thought to be male due to having undescended testicles. However, during surgery, the veterinarian discovered that the cat had both testicular and ovarian tissue, along with a uterus, indicating a rare condition known as true hermaphroditism. This means the cat had both male and female reproductive organs. The cat's genetic makeup was typical for a male, but no specific genetic mutation was found to explain this condition. This case is significant as it's the first documented instance of this disorder in a domestic cat.
People also search for: cat hermaphrodite symptoms Ā· mixed-breed cat neutering complications Ā· why does my cat have both male and female parts
Abstract
Investigation of abnormal sexual development in companion animals can allow for the elimination of inherited disorders from breeding populations while contributing to the understanding of the complex process of mammalian sexual development and differentiation. A 1-year-old mixed-breed cat, presented for neutering, was tentatively diagnosed as a male with bilateral cryptorchidism. During surgery, the surgeon identified gonads in an ovarian position and a complete bicornuate uterus. Both testicular and ovarian architecture in the gonads and Mullerian and Wolffian duct derivatives were identified histologically. The karyotype was that of a normal male (38,XY), and no causative mutation was identified in the feline SRY coding sequence amplified from genomic DNA. All features of the case were compatible with a diagnosis of SRY-positive 38,XY sex reversal, true hermaphrodite phenotype. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first report of this disorder in a domestic cat.
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Search related cases āOriginal publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20861501/