Gender Neutral Stage

[caters]

My Kepler Bb humanoids which are a species I made to be Human version 2.0, have development that is different from ours. There are actually 2 different timelines. 1 of them has to do with gender determination and the other has to do with developmental milestones.

For developmental milestones, they have the same number of years for the first 2(infant and toddler) but their years are longer than ours. Much longer in fact. About 8 times longer. Their day is longer also but not near 8 times longer. Childhood for them goes from 3 years to 15 years. Adolescence is 15 years to 25 years. Then there is a 1 year period between adolescence and adulthood.

With gender determination, there are 2 stages. Gender neutral and known gender. The gender neutral stage goes from conception, through the whole pregnancy, and all the way until the child's 5th birthday. Then the child starts to show signs that it is male or female and thus the parents know whether it is a boy or a girl at 5 years. A doctor might know right at birth from medical imaging the gender of the child but the parents won't know until the child is 5 years old.

Male development

In children who are internally male but are externally gender neutral, there are 2 urethras, a primary and a secondary. 1 of them is in the little nub while the other is further back and goes straight down from the bladder. Because the nub is not a penis yet, there isn't the characteristic spray of urine like there is in male human babies, it just flows out. The testicles, along with the rest of the male reproductive organs are in the abdomen at this point. There is no need for them to descend yet so they don't.

Once the child turns 5 years old, a small surge of testosterone changes everything about the urethras and testicles. This increase in testosterone causes the straight urethra to die off and the testicles to physiologically herniate out of the abdomen and the skin to stretch around the hernia to form the scrotum. The nub also grows into a penis.

Female development

In children who are internally female but externally gender neutral, they basically look the same as those that are internally male but externally gender neutral. However, an abdominal scan for medical purposes will show for certain what gender the child is before it becomes visible to the naked eye.

Once the child turns 5 years old, the testosterone levels stay low and estrogen rises. This increased estrogen causes the nub to stay about the same size and become the clitoris as well as causes the urethra within the nub to die off. The skin and muscle that originally covered the vagina also dies off at this point while other areas of skin and muscle right around it stretch to form the labia minora and the labia majora.

What should I call this gender neutral stage before 5 years? I mean, yes, if I write about how Kepler Bb humanoids develop, I would certainly use externally gender neutral to describe this stage and then just refer to the stage as whatever I decide to call it. Any ideas as to what I should call this stage when gender can only be known via medical imaging of the abdomen?

 

[StringJunky]

Agender stage.

[Lord Antares]

What's all this nonsense?

Edited September 2, 2017 by Lord Antares

[StringJunky]

6 minutes ago, Lord Antares said:

What's all this nonsense?

Never knew writing a book of fiction was nonsense. The OP is looking for a technical term where a child is at an intermediate stage in their develpment between male and female. I don't know the medical term but may be searching for term when real babies are without gender after fertilisation might be the one to use.

[Raider5678]

8 hours ago, caters said:

My Kepler Bb humanoids which are a species I made to be Human version 2.0, have development that is different from ours. There are actually 2 different timelines. 1 of them has to do with gender determination and the other has to do with developmental milestones.

For developmental milestones, they have the same number of years for the first 2(infant and toddler) but their years are longer than ours. Much longer in fact. About 8 times longer. Their day is longer also but not near 8 times longer. Childhood for them goes from 3 years to 15 years. Adolescence is 15 years to 25 years. Then there is a 1 year period between adolescence and adulthood.

With gender determination, there are 2 stages. Gender neutral and known gender. The gender neutral stage goes from conception, through the whole pregnancy, and all the way until the child's 5th birthday. Then the child starts to show signs that it is male or female and thus the parents know whether it is a boy or a girl at 5 years. A doctor might know right at birth from medical imaging the gender of the child but the parents won't know until the child is 5 years old.

Male development

In children who are internally male but are externally gender neutral, there are 2 urethras, a primary and a secondary. 1 of them is in the little nub while the other is further back and goes straight down from the bladder. Because the nub is not a penis yet, there isn't the characteristic spray of urine like there is in male human babies, it just flows out. The testicles, along with the rest of the male reproductive organs are in the abdomen at this point. There is no need for them to descend yet so they don't.

Once the child turns 5 years old, a small surge of testosterone changes everything about the urethras and testicles. This increase in testosterone causes the straight urethra to die off and the testicles to physiologically herniate out of the abdomen and the skin to stretch around the hernia to form the scrotum. The nub also grows into a penis.

Female development

In children who are internally female but externally gender neutral, they basically look the same as those that are internally male but externally gender neutral. However, an abdominal scan for medical purposes will show for certain what gender the child is before it becomes visible to the naked eye.

Once the child turns 5 years old, the testosterone levels stay low and estrogen rises. This increased estrogen causes the nub to stay about the same size and become the clitoris as well as causes the urethra within the nub to die off. The skin and muscle that originally covered the vagina also dies off at this point while other areas of skin and muscle right around it stretch to form the labia minora and the labia majora.

What should I call this gender neutral stage before 5 years? I mean, yes, if I write about how Kepler Bb humanoids develop, I would certainly use externally gender neutral to describe this stage and then just refer to the stage as whatever I decide to call it. Any ideas as to what I should call this stage when gender can only be known via medical imaging of the abdomen?

 

So they're predetermined inside automatically?

Would it not be easier to make it so that they simply become what ever their internal gender is?

I mean, then you'd run into the problem of them switching genders still, but you're going to find that even with this set up they're going to have the wrong gender and want to become the other gender.

[iNow]

I'd go with: physiologically undifferentiated OR gender masked

Some useful concepts here that may offer other new ideas: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_differentiation