A teenager born with male genitalia has become pregnant after making the shocking discovery that she also has working ovaries during a routine doctor's appointment.
Mikey Chanel, 18, was assigned male at birth, but she always felt different from her peers.
Prior to her birth, she had been revealed to be a girl in her mother's womb, which is why her family were so surprised when she was born with male genitalia.
In the video below, Mikey explains how she discovered her female genitalia:"It was obvious to everyone that I was different right from the start," Mikey said. "At age five, I'd be playing with my aunt's purses and putting on my mom's lipstick.
"I never felt like a boy. I was quite effeminate and I never really went through a whole 'boy puberty' thing."
Mikey - who lives in Boston, Massachusetts, and worked as an events coordinator before the pandemic -continued: "I only have a tiny bit of facial hair. I've always had a feminine-shaped body, with hips and a butt.
"I got bullied at school, everyone told me I was a f**got, a tranny, since third grade - before I even knew what it meant really."
At the age of 13, Mikey came out as gay and soon began to wonder if she was transgender, however, the truth was revealed last year during a routine doctor's appointment.
"I had been having a weird feeling after peeing and after sex, so they did an ultrasound of my urinary tract," Mikey said.
"They told me that I had a cervix, ovaries, uterus, and fallopian tubes and that I could get pregnant if I wanted to.
"I actually thought it was a joke. I didn’t even know this was possible. I was like 'haha where are the cameras'? Then they showed me my uterus on the screen."
It was then that Mikey was diagnosed with a rare condition known as Persistent Müllerian duct syndrome (PMDS), which causes a person to have external male genitalia, but internal female genitalia.
Mikey was then advised to have a hysterectomy as soon as possible.
Mikey added: "People with PDMS are susceptible to cancer and tumors and the risk is lessened if you have a hysterectomy.
"My male parts came back infertile but I was told that my ovaries were functioning.
"I was in a state of shock for a couple of weeks then I realized that I wouldn’t be able to have a child unless I carried it myself, and soon.
"I always knew I wanted to be a parent, I used to play with baby dolls when I was little and I’ve always seen kids in my future, so I decided, 'it's now or never I have to try and get pregnant.'"
Mikey then had a number of fertility procedures including ICSI using donor sperm, and a laparoscopic procedure called ZIFT was used to implant the fertilized egg into her fallopian tubes.
As Mikey does not have a vaginal opening, an abdominal cavity was used to implant the embryos.
"I was told there was only about a 20 percent chance it would work, but it worked, and I was so shocked but happy," Mikey, who is now four months pregnant, said.
"I can't wait to be a parent," she added.
"My parents weren't around much when I was a kid, so I want to be the parent that my parents couldn't be, I really want to be there for my child.
"I want to be there for everything from the first step to the first word to them graduating from college, I want to be supportive in everything and anything they chose in life."
Mikey is now taking estrogen and she hopes to continue her transition after her child is born.
"I feel more like a woman now than ever," she said.
Mikey is now hoping that by going public about her experience, she will raise awareness of PMDS, and in turn, break the stigma surrounding gender nonconformity.
"Nobody really speaks about this, most people have never even heard of it," she said.
"There isn't a lot of research about it and there aren’t a lot of tests, often it’s found accidentally, like in my case.
"I feel like there should be more research, I'm just trying to educate people about it. Once people understand it could break a really big stigma with gender and within LGBT communities."
