Child has both male and female organs

Father dumped family for South Africa

Mother, accused of witchcraft

The Shona have a saying that “amai votsva musana, mwana wotsva dumbu”.

When she was born, Tanatswa looked like a girl but now as her body is changing she now looks like a boy — When she was born, Tanatswa (Far left) looked like a girl but now as her body is changing she now looks like a boy

Loosely translated, this can easily relate to the situation that seven-year-old Tanatswa Dhewa and his/her mother find themselves in.

The use of the double pronouns, his and her, is deliberate, because as of now, Mrs Anna Marombei-Dhewa, Tanatswa’s mother, does not know what sex her child is.

When she gave birth seven years back, Mrs Dhewa thought the gods had answered her prayers for a baby girl. Five years earlier she had been blessed with a baby boy.

And for the first three years of her life, Tanatswa had an upbringing any normal child would yearn for: food, shelter, clothing and – most importantly – the unconditional love of both parents.

“I bought her a lot of nice girl clothes so that she could feel good about herself,” the mother narrates.

Unfortunately nothing about her life was normal and no amount of creature comforts would prepare her for what lay ahead.

Not only has she seen her father running away from the family because of her condition, but her mother has been ostracised by society.

Worse still, at school other children are always making fun of her.

Tanatswa has been to hell and back. And back to hell again.

Her crime: she was born with both sexual organs. She is part female and part male.

When she was born, Tanatswa looked like a girl. But the changes her body has gone through over the last couple of years have caused the residents of Norton in general and those within her sphere of life in particular, to treat her differently.

In a case that has left many shell-shocked, Tanatswa was born with what looks to be both sexual organs. She is not necessarily a hermaphrodite, as her organs are located at the same place.

What complicates her sexuality is that the male organ does not have an urethra nor does she have testicles. And her female sexual organ does not have any vaginal lips or clitoris.

Instead, it only has a small opening that she uses to urinate.

At just seven years of age, Tanatswa has already developed pubic hair – on the groin and in the arm pits.

To complicate the situation, the child grew up as a girl for four years, and then started looking like a boy.

When Tanatswa was born, nurses at Norton Hospital referred Mrs Murombei-Dhewa to Harare Hospital for tests and examinations to determine her sex.

“I gave birth to Tanatswa the normal way, without any complications at all. Tanatswa urinated using the female sexual organ and that alone made me think that she was meant to be a female.

“However, several tests were done at the Central Hospital and doctors told me that the examinations needed more time before a decision was made.

“The decision was to choose whether she was a girl or boy. They told me to go home and come back after six months,” she explains.

“When I went back to the hospital, results showed that my child had a womb but had both female and male hormones. The doctors’ conclusion was that Tanatswa was a girl.”

Mrs Dhewa registered Tanatswa as a female on her birth certificate, and later, after a few years, also took a passport for Tanatswa.

She has plaited hair in that passport photo, and looks like any other young girl.

Everyone in their community knew Tanatswa as a girl.

“I plaited her hair, dressed her with colourful ribbons and beautiful headbands. Tanatswa was so beautiful and no one could tell that she had an abnormality. Her father accepted that such things could happen and loved her the way she was,” the mother says.

She says doctors advised her to let her daughter grow to at least three-years-old before opting for surgery to remove the male sexual organ.

Those three years were blissful.

Then the specialists suggested that the male sexual organ be removed.

Unfortunately, the surgery required a lot of money, which the mother could not afford. By then, the father had abandoned Tanatswa and her mother, relocating to South Africa.

“During that time at least US$3 000 was required for the surgery and back then we were still using Zim dollars so we could not afford it,” she says.

Her circumstances have not changed much.

Being an airtime vendor, and without extended family to turn to, she has been fighting a lone battle.

“Looking after my children has been stressful. The airtime I sell brings a small profit margin. I am actually looking for money to take Tanatswa for further tests to ascertain what needs to be done now, that she has turned into a boy and yet has a womb. The doctors will have to suggest what could be the way forward,” Mrs Murombei-Dhewa says.

Tanatswa’s male sexual organ has been growing, and she is getting taller than other children her age.

Her sweet girlish voice is now grated, like that of a teenage boy starting puberty.

“I saw my baby girl turning into a boy. Sometimes when I examine her male sexual organ and touch it, it gets hard as if she is about to get an erection,” cries Mrs Marombei-Dhewa.

“The male sexual organ does not have an opening (urethra) and it does not have any testicles. It is attached to the female organ and I am not sure if the doctors will be able to separate it.”

Naturally troubled by all this, she recalls: “When Tanatswa was growing, I always told her that she was unique every time we bathed together because she was always asking me why her private parts were different from others…

“At one point she refused to go to school. However, the headmaster addressed the school and announced that it was punishable to mock Tanatswa.

“As we discussed the matter further with the school authorities, she was allowed to wear trousers even if it is not winter so that people would stop asking her a lot of questions about her sex.”

She says Tanatswa’s school reports show that she is a slow learner, maybe because of the ordeal she is going through.

The situation has been a real torment to the mother, and she says she has thought of suicide.

What has not helped her circumstances either is that besides her husband running away from the situation, her in-laws accuse her of dabbling in witchcraft.

And she has since been diagnosed with a heart problem.

Growing up as an orphan, Mrs Marombei-Dhewa did not finish school and got married at 18. She gave birth to her first born, son Tinotenda five years later.

Tinotenda has no disabilities and goes to the same school as Tanatswa.

Today she looks after her two children with money she gets from selling airtime and vegetables. Sometimes the father of her children does send money, but it is often too little and far between.

DISCLAIMER: The Sunday Mail, as a policy, does not publish the names and images of minors in such sensitive cases, but did so in this regard with the express permission of Mrs Murombei-Dhewa, who hopes that publication of the situation could elicit assistance from well-wishers. Those willing to assist the family can get in touch with them using mobile number 0777172322. [FOR ONLINE, administration decided not to publish all the pictures for the agreement was for print publication]

Tanatswa’s condition explained

Extra Reporter

Local medical experts have described Tanatswa’s case as “intersexual”.

Intersexual is defined by the Intersex Association of America as a general term used for a variety of conditions in which a person is born with a reproductive or sexual anatomy that doesn’t seem to fit the typical definitions of female or male.

For example, a person might be born appearing to be female on the outside, but having mostly male-typical anatomy inside.

In some cases, a person may be born with genitals that seem to be in-between the usual male and female types. For example, a girl may be born with a noticeably large clitoris, or lacking a vaginal opening or a boy may be born with a notably small penis, or with a scrotum that is divided so that it is formed more like labia.

“Basing on the description I hear about Tanatswa, it seems this person was born with mosaic genetics. This means that some of her cells have XX chromosomes and some of them have XY,” said Dr Steven Ndlovu, a local medical expert.

He said some people may mistake the condition with being hermaphrodite.

“However, a hermaphrodite is biologically defined as an organism that has reproductive organs normally associated with both male and female sexes,” he added.

“When a person has a hermaphrodite condition it means the person has a fully developed male sexual organ and a fully developed female sexual organ.”

Tanatswa’s male sexual organ does not have the testicles and urethra while her female sexual organ does not have clitoris, vagina lips and cervix opening.

Dr Ndlovu said the child’s condition requires a lot of researches, examination and analysis in order for health specialists and parents to come up with a solid solution.

A local neo-natal specialist and paediatric surgeon who preferred to comment on anonymity said Tanatswa’s condition was supposed to have been dealt with when she was still a baby.

“Normally, as paediatric specialists we do not allow a child to grow to that age with such a condition. The child’s condition was supposed to have been dealt with a long time ago.”

He said the condition can be fixed but it requires a lot of researches and tests in order to establish the dominant sex.

“However, there are no specific circumstances that can explain such an outcome. Such conditions are very rare.”

He said the imbalance of both hormones could have caused the early maturity on Tanatswa.