XY woman gives birth to XY daughter

One of the most tedious and often repeated pieces of anti trans rhetoric (amongst many) that I’m attacked with by some cis women feminists is that I’m not a “real” woman because I don’t have the “right” chromosomes. This pisses me off for three reasons: first, it assumes that my chromosomal karyotype is 47,XY; second, it erases the existence of intersex people and third, it posits an essentialist and cissexist worldview in which I and other TS/TG people are always and forever the sex we were assigned at birth, regardless of whether or not that particular value judgement bears any resemblance to our individual lived experiences. It denies us the agency to change, it’s unfeminist in that it denies us bodily autonomy and, frankly, I’m sick of hearing it. To paraphrase Morrissey, it says nothing to me about my life. So by way of illustration that chromosomes don’t necessarily determine sex, this report in the snappily-titled Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism makes interesting reading.

A 46,XY mother who developed as a normal woman underwent spontaneous puberty, reached menarche, menstruated regularly, experienced two unassisted pregnancies, and gave birth to a 46,XY daughter with complete gonadal dysgenesis.

As the OII (International Intersex Organisation) explains, gonadal dysgenesis is an intersex variation characterised by the presence of “streak gonads” (neither discrete ovaries or testes). Complete Gonadal Dysgenesis yields female genitals and Müllerian duct formation, despite a genetic profile suggesting maleness.

One case of interest relates to two individuals named Stella and Ewa who won Olympic medals more than thirty years apart as females. It was later discovered that the women were 46,XY females with the mixed gonadal dysgenesis condition. Not much other than their phenotypically female status is known although it could be assumed the women were not able to bear children. Their condition was not hereditary nor can it be predicted [...]

So may we now have a little less of this essentialist nonsense that our chromosomal karyotypes dictate whether or not we’re “real” women, please?