androgen insensitivity question

[anibioman]

i have a question about people with androgen insensitivity i have only ever read about one individual with androgen insensitivity who identified as female and lived most of her life not even knowing. so i was wondering if there where any people with androgen insensitivity. im just curious as it was a question that came up in my pondering the link between hormones and gender, and gender identity.

[Zelane]

The only thing I have read about is related to the hormonal wash in-uterus so making the brain "male" or "female" and in the case of CAIS (complete androgen insensitivity syndrome) since their bodies cant process the testosterone even when the hormonal wash to dictate their inborn bodies to develop male (including the brain) failed.

They developed and were being born with a external female body, except that there is no uterus and ovaries and only a shallow vagina. But their brains entirely "female"

[Jamie D]

i have a question about people with androgen insensitivity i have only ever read about one individual with androgen insensitivity who identified as female and lived most of her life not even knowing. so i was wondering if there where any people with androgen insensitivity. im just curious as it was a question that came up in my pondering the link between hormones and gender, and gender identity.

I think you should look up "Complete Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome."  These individuals are fully feminine.  They are phenotypically female.  They have breasts, female body form, female gender identity, a vagina (albeit "blind"), but only very, very rarely a uterus.  Because they are genotypically 46,XY, they possess ovotestes that produce testosterone, but their androgen receptors are mutated and don't "see" the testosterone, which becomes converted into estrogen through aromatization.

There are several CAIS women who post YouTube videos too.

For a 46,XY fetus to become a normal male, in utero, it must undergo delicately timed "testosterone showers" to masculinize the body, and the brain, which happen at different times.

Exogenous sources of hormones can also affect both 46,XY and 46,XX fetuses, causing various degrees of masculinization or femininization.  "DES" is a good example of that.