Mixed gonadal dysgenesis and dysgenetic male pseudohermaphroditism--a critical analysis

A 10 year prospective study of 14 patients with mixed gonadal dysgenesis (MGD) and six patients with dysgenetic male pseudohermaphroditism (DMP) is reported. All of them had internal mullerian structures, along with unilateral or bilateral dysgenetic testes, ambiguous external genitalia. Twelve had been brought up as male, nine of whom had a unilateral descended testis. Eight had been reared as females, as they had bilaterally undescended gonads, and ambiguous genitalia. Clinical examination, retrograde genito-urethrography and cytogenetic studies suggested the diagnosis in 16 patients, while four were diagnosed on inguino-abdominal exploration for undescended testis. This report delineates more clearly the clinical profile of these orders. All the patients reared as male were assigned the male gender following abdominal gonadectomy, retention of scrotal testis and male genitoplasty. The eight patients who were reared as females underwent bilateral salpingo-gonadectomy and female genitoplasty. This management differs from the usual recommendation that all such children should be reared as females. Ten patients (50%) had maternal history of previous abortion/stillbirth, or drug intake in the first trimester of pregnancy suggesting a role of these factors in the etiology. All cases of DMP had a 46,XY karyotype, while eight of 14 cases of MGD had mosaicism with 45X/46,XY cell lines in blood or gonadal cultures. The clinicopathological features of patients of MGD and DMP were similar. It is suggested that these two disorders represent different spectra of the same disorder. A unifying concept of etiopathogenesis is proposed.