Dear gentlemen, Science has a confession.
Your life actually began as a female.
Well, phenotypically or physically speaking that is,
though some prefer to call this stage gender neutral.
As you might know,
two people mate, they each combine half of their genetic information together;
23 chromosomes each. One pair of these chromosomes helps to determine your sex.
If you're female you contain two X chromosomes one from your mother and one
from your father
while males have one X and one Y chromosome. At the moment of conception
you were of course male or female based on your jeans
but the Y chromosome doesn't kick in right away. In fact, the first five to six
weeks of embryonic development are attributed to the X chromosome alone
and females grow from embryo to fully developed to the influence of
only the X chromosome. So what does the Y chromosome do?
Once activated, one of the genes on the Y chromosome
known as the SRY gene has two functions: to inhibit certain features of the X
chromosome
and to impose through dominance the physiological traits that a male must
have.
The ovaries descend and become the testes and the labia fuses to create the scrotum.
If you're a male, take a look. Though it's more pronounced in some and then
others, you'll likely notice a line or ridge of tissue on the scrotum
which is called the 'scrotal raphe'. The skin of the scrotum and penis
are zipped up like a zipper as the layers of cells develop in the embryo.
And the mail variant of the clitoris?
Yep, that's the penis. If the Y chromosome does not become activated for some
reason
then the female phenotype or physical appearance will persist in a male.
Power added, this is also part of the reason males have nipples.
The nipples form before the activation of the Y chromosome
and SRY gene and thus remain through development and life.
But, you don't develop breasts. Sorry. Got a burning question you want answered?
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