That was exactly what happened to a woman in China.
According to a report by Mashable SEA, the 25-year-old woman had injured her ankle and went to get an X-ray done.
The result of the X-ray shocked both the woman and the doctor as it was discovered that her bones had failed to develop past adolescence.
Further questioning revealed that the woman had never menstruated before, which explained the difficulty she faced attempting to get pregnant despite trying for an entire year.
In her defence, the woman said she visited a doctor with her mother when she was younger due to her menstruation issues, but the doctor dismissed it as delayed sexual development.
Tests reveal more information
What’s mind-blowing is that after several tests, the woman was found to have a karyotype (a collection of chromosomes) of 46,XY which is a pattern usually found in males with genitalia neither of a male's or female's.That just means that the woman, who thought she was a female as she has external female genitalia, was actually born as an intersex person.
According to Planned Parenthood, intersex is an "umbrella term that describes bodies that fall outside the strict male/female binary. There are lots of ways someone can be intersex."
We've included these paragraphs from the site as we think it best describes what it means to be intersex:
Some intersex people have genitals or internal sex organs that fall outside the male/female categories — such as a person with both ovarian and testicular tissues. Other intersex people have combinations of chromosomes that are different than XY ( usually associated with male) and XX (usually associated with female), like XXY. And some people are born with external genitals that fall into the typical male/female categories, but their internal organs or hormones don’t.
"If a person’s genitals look different from what doctors and nurses expect when they’re born, someone might be identified as intersex from birth. Other times, someone might not know they’re intersex until later in life, like when they go through puberty. Sometimes a person can live their whole life without ever discovering that they’re intersex.
Discovering the unexpected
The First Affiliated Hospital of College of Medicine at Zhejiang University, which has been examining the case, said that the woman was also suffering from high blood pressure and low blood potassium.These point to congenital adrenal hyperplasia, a disease linked to sexual development disorder.
Such cases generally happen in 1 in 1,500 people to 1 in 2,000 people.
Now the woman has to make up her mind on which gender she's comfortable being or if she would like to live her life as an intersex person.
Whatever the decision, we hope that the family and community supports it.