androgen insensitivity syndrome

noun

: a genetic disorder that causes complete or partial insensitivity to androgens in the body

Note: A person affected with androgen insensitivity syndrome has the physical appearance of a female and the X and Y chromosomes of a male with external genitalia that are female or ambiguous, no uterus, and usually normal but undescended testes. Androgen insensitivity syndrome is inherited as an X-linked recessive trait requiring that only one parent pass on a copy of the defective gene on an X chromosome to male offspring.

called also testicular feminization, testicular feminization syndrome

Examples of androgen insensitivity syndrome in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

My post actually linked to androgen insensitivity syndrome. —Razib Khan, Discover Magazine, 24 June 2012

Sean Saifa Wall is an intersex activist and researcher who was born with an intersex variation called androgen insensitivity syndrome, which occurs when a person who has XY chromosomes is resistant to hormones called androgens. —Meghan McDonough, Scientific American, 24 Aug. 2022

Two of his nine siblings had undergone similar operations, but his relatives never talked about the fact that androgen insensitivity syndrome, a genetic intersex condition, ran in the family. —Kate Sosin, USA TODAY, 11 Aug. 2020

She was born with androgen insensitivity syndrome, a condition that caused her to have external female anatomy and, internally, undescended testes instead of a uterus. —Diane Stopyra, Marie Claire, 5 July 2017

Word History

First Known Use

1969, in the meaning defined above

Medical Definition

androgen insensitivity syndrome

noun

: a genetic disorder that causes complete or partial insensitivity to androgens in the body

Note: A person affected with androgen insensitivity syndrome has the physical appearance of a female and the X and Y chromosomes of a male with external genitalia that are female or ambiguous, no uterus, and usually normal but undescended testes. Androgen insensitivity syndrome is inherited as an X-linked recessive trait requiring that only one parent pass on a copy of the defective gene on an X chromosome to male offspring.

If a chromosomally male embryo has androgen-insensitivity syndrome, … the cells' receptors for testosterone, an androgen, are deaf to the testosterone's instructions, and will thus develop the default external sexual characteristics of a female.

—Ariel Levy, The New Yorker

called also testicular feminization, testicular feminization syndrome