Can a XX woman go through male puberty?

[DenmarkStreet]

The Facebook algorithms decided that I was a good object for an article on the Imane Khelif discussion which ended with the statement that some XX women go through male puberty. Or as it was described "the testosterone shower" which very much seem to suggest something quite brief. Is this even possible or just made up?

Anyone here confidently saying "no" has a confidence that is misplaced

Yes, XX Males do exist, and it is usually due to migration of the SRY gene from the Y to the X chromosome, it can be found in 1/20,000 male births by some estimates.

This is also not always true, there can be overlap of testosterone levels of men and women. Especially if they have reduced testosterone sensitivity because the body can upregulate the levels of this (same as other hormones)

Did you go through puberty and get your periods? If so then you don't need to take any kind of test.

again, its very very rare but some XY females do experience menstruation

I'm going to quote Helleofabore's regular post on this, since she's not in this thread at the moment. It's very informative. She has to repost this often:

This is from a PCOS advocate on twitter.

PCOS raises female testosterone to up to 5.5 nmol/L (and above 4 can cause serious issues).
5-ARD raised Caster's testosterone to 21 nmol/L.

twitter.com/NathanielHart72/status/1550916276490477568?s=20&t=E8muLvV5kUEpbPeemz8zwQ

and

twitter.com/seaningle/status/1537480540068225031?s=20&t=E8muLvV5kUEpbPeemz8zwQ

Sean Ingle (Guardian sports journalist) mentioned this

The latest scientific publications clearly demonstrate that the return of markers of endurance capacity to "female level" occurs within six to eight months under low blood testosterone, while the awaited adaptations in muscle mass and muscle strength/power take much longer (two years minimum according to a recent study). Given the important role played by muscle strength and power in cycling performance, the UCI has decided to increase the transition period on low testosterone from 12 to 24 months. In addition, the UCI has decided to lower the maximum permitted plasma testosterone level (currently 5 mol/L) to 2.5 mol/L. This value corresponds to the maximum testosterone level found in 99.99% of the female population.

Plus

^https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/sms.14581^

The International Olympic Committee framework on fairness, inclusion and nondiscrimination on the basis of gender identity and sex variations does not protect fairness for female athletes

“In adulthood, circulating testosterone concentrations do not come close to overlapping between females (0.1–1.7 nmol/L) and males (7.7–29.4 nmol/L).”

plus with handy charts in the tweet

https://x.com/hoovlet/status/1819017510005407984

“Confirmed. No overlap in T levels between healthy men and women, and rarely in people with atypical levels”.

“Below I'll include some info from my book on T and sex diffs. First is an illustration of the combined data from a meta-analysis of studies on a healthy population (by David Handelsman), and another on T levels in ppl with medical conditions/DSDs (by Richard Clark). I've also included my text description of the data. The original illustration is from Doriane Coleman's excellent Sex in Sport article (link is in the graphic). She let me adapt it for my book but hers is clearer!”

If you are using the term 'woman with high testosterone', plus check your sources and don't spread misinformation. Female people with PCOS, women, DO NOT HAVE male levels of testosterone!

I was replying to the poster who said she always thought she was a woman but might need to take a test.

My point was that if she has already gone through normal female puberty, we can be pretty certain that she is female regardless of any rare genetic quirks that she may or may not have but most likely doesn't if everything has progressed as expected.