'It is the first case in Germany that becomes known to a broad public. Christiane Völling was both a man and a woman, but she only learned that from her hospital files at the age of 46. Until then, her name was Thomas. What looked like a boy with a small penis to doctors and parents after birth, later turned out to be a girl with an intact uterus and ovaries during an appendectomy. Without her knowledge, her femininity was then operated away.
In addition, the doctors prescribed her testosterone – with devastating physical and mental consequences. In 2007, Christiane Völling sued the doctor who had done this to her. The trial has a signaling effect for more than 100,000 intersexuals in Germany, many of them with comparable fates.
