I was under the impression that the sperm that fertilizes the egg carries either an X chromosome or Y chromosome and that’s what determines male or female. So that would mean conception is in fact when this gets decided, no? What am I missing here?
Sex isn’t directly determined by chromosomes, it is determined by someone taking a look at the sex organs. This works for most people, but embryonic development is like most things complicated and there are a lot of factors that make it more difficult than “male” and “female”. Examples are people with more than 2 chromosomes or that have absorbed a sibling in the womb. Difference of sex development is estimated to affect 1/100 people.
So when the doc takes a look just before 6 weeks, she must declare “the embryo has ovaries and no testes - female” at every single person. At literal conception: “Idk know, man, it is just 1 cell”.
Sex isn’t directly determined by chromosomes, it is determined by someone taking a look at the sex organs.
I mean that’s how it’s usually observed, but not how it’s determined. Those sex organs get there somehow. The general rule is that if you have a heightened level of androgens and nothing preventing you from responding to them at a certain point in fetal development then you develop male sex organs, if not you develop female sex organs. Barring some other medical disorder, those heightened androgens that masculinize the fetus are triggered by the action of the SRY gene on a Y chromosome.
Difference of sex development is estimated to affect 1/100 people.
If you include absolutely everything, yeah. But someone with Klinefelter’s is in terms of sexual function male (if less fertile), someone with XXX is in the same way female, XX people with CAIS are in the same way female, etc. Cases where there’s ambiguity in sexual function are much more rare.
But really all this is like making the argument that gloves shouldn’t come in pairs with five fingers per glove because rarely people are born with syndactyly, polydactyly, etc. Like the definition Trump uses is stupid and wrong (not least because no one is producing gametes at conception) and it’s at least even odds it makes him non-male since at his age he’s probably shooting blanks, but to pretend that sex in humans doesn’t come in two categories and an assortment of rare conditions in which something went wrong genetically or developmentally is kinda silly.
I was under the impression that the sperm that fertilizes the egg carries either an X chromosome or Y chromosome and that’s what determines male or female. So that would mean conception is in fact when this gets decided, no? What am I missing here?
Sex isn’t directly determined by chromosomes, it is determined by someone taking a look at the sex organs. This works for most people, but embryonic development is like most things complicated and there are a lot of factors that make it more difficult than “male” and “female”. Examples are people with more than 2 chromosomes or that have absorbed a sibling in the womb. Difference of sex development is estimated to affect 1/100 people.
So when the doc takes a look just before 6 weeks, she must declare “the embryo has ovaries and no testes - female” at every single person. At literal conception: “Idk know, man, it is just 1 cell”.
I mean that’s how it’s usually observed, but not how it’s determined. Those sex organs get there somehow. The general rule is that if you have a heightened level of androgens and nothing preventing you from responding to them at a certain point in fetal development then you develop male sex organs, if not you develop female sex organs. Barring some other medical disorder, those heightened androgens that masculinize the fetus are triggered by the action of the SRY gene on a Y chromosome.
If you include absolutely everything, yeah. But someone with Klinefelter’s is in terms of sexual function male (if less fertile), someone with XXX is in the same way female, XX people with CAIS are in the same way female, etc. Cases where there’s ambiguity in sexual function are much more rare.
But really all this is like making the argument that gloves shouldn’t come in pairs with five fingers per glove because rarely people are born with syndactyly, polydactyly, etc. Like the definition Trump uses is stupid and wrong (not least because no one is producing gametes at conception) and it’s at least even odds it makes him non-male since at his age he’s probably shooting blanks, but to pretend that sex in humans doesn’t come in two categories and an assortment of rare conditions in which something went wrong genetically or developmentally is kinda silly.
Also, imagine how awkward it is to be the determining doc in that situation.