Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia (CAH) Essay

Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia (CAH) is a sexual disorder that has been discovered to arise from a case of a genital mutation that sparks unnatural production of hormones by the adrenal glands (Wilson, 01). The condition was first brought to light by an Italian Pathologist known as Luigi De Crecchio at the Hospital of the Incurables in Naples who was the first to be a part of the extraordinary autopsy of Giuseppe Marzo (Paine et al., 05.). The article is an important one to the world of medicine as it helps the physicians to track the developments that have been achieved one hundred and fifty years later in the country.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

De Crecchio discusses the autopsy in detail as one continues to read the report. The body is first identified as one that belonged to Giuseppe Marzo who is approximated to be anywhere between forty and fifty years (Paine et al., 151). The body as reported as been excavated from a cemetery fifteen days after the burial but is still firm and has the usual cadaveric tendencies as described by the Doctor (Paine et al. 151). The body has been described as being mostly masculine apart from the small feminine hands with a length of 150 centimetres. For the external genitalia, there is an abnormal sizeable suprapubic fat even for a female (Paine et al., 156). The penis is also not standard as it is said to have an inferior curve with a stretched length of ten centimetres (Paine et al. 156). The penis also has a seemingly normal glans with Hypospadias (Paine et al., 157). Besides, the labioscrotal folds were hypoplasic and without any rutigation or pigmentation over the shaft, contemporarily known as the shawl scrotum (Paine et al.,157). The penis is described as one that is similar to the labia minora and next to the clitoris. Once the body was opened up, it was apparent that this was a female who had a male urinary tract since he had ovaries, a fallopian tube and even a vagina of six centimetres in length and two centimetres in width(Paine et al., 157). There was also the discovery of substantially large adrenal glands that De Crecchio disposed of without analysing the impact that the adrenal glands in influencing the sex differentiation.

Conclusion

The article in an elaborative manner explores the difficulty that one may be presented with as they continue to attempt to determine the sex of a person. Marzo had for instance been identified as a baby girl when he was first born. However, at the third month of his life, he was discovered to have the male genitalia that saw him be identified as a male too (Keener, 06). The fact that the case was among the first in the medical literature makes the discoveries that were recorded by De Crecchio to be such a significant development for anyone keen about the advancements of CAH (Keener, 06). The anatomy that the autopsy reported helps one to appreciate the strides that have been made in helping the people born with the disorders to be able to live fulfilling lives as either males or females. Marzo, for instance, would have been raised as a female with the reconstructive surgery that would have turned his penis into a clitoris (Keener, 07). The article, however, helps one to introspect that it is not always easy, as it seems in determining the sex of the baby, as there may be other factors that will influence how such a situation is perceived. It is interesting to note that all the medical knowledge that is known today was not obvious to De Crecchio especially on the impact that adrenal glands have on sex differentiation.

Works Cited

Keener, Amanda. "A Case Of Sexual Ambiguity, 1865". The Scientist Magazine, 2015, https://www.the-scientist.com/foundations/a-case-of-sexual-ambiguity-1865-35073. Accessed 12 July 2018.

Piane, Luisa Delle et al. "150 Years Of Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia: Translation And Commentary Of De Crecchio's Classic Paper From 1865: Endocrinology: Vol 156, No 4". Press.Endocrine.Org, 2014, http://press.endocrine.org/doi/10.1210/en.2014-1879?url_ver=Z39.88-2003&rfr_id=ori%3Arid%3Acrossref.org&rfr_dat=cr_pub%3Dpubmed&. Accessed 12 July 2018.

Wilson, Thomas. "Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia: Practice Essentials, Background, Pathophysiology". Emedicine.Medscape.Com, 2018, https://emedicine.medscape.com/article/919218-overview. Accessed 12 July 2018.