Lois is left stunned to discover she has both male and female organs (Picture: BBC)

Call The Midwife tackled the discovery of being intersex on tonight’s episode, when a bride-to-be discovers she has no womb and testes.

Lois Parry attends the nurses’ station to get a smear test, before admitting to Trixie that she has never had a period, despite being 22.

She had been lying to her family and friends, pretending to have periods when in fact she never had, which caused concern as she prepared to get married and have children.

After further examination from the doctors, she’s left heartbroken to discover that she is intersex.


The doctor tells her: ‘He discovered that you have a very rare condition, and where your ovaries would normally be, he found two male testes growing. It’s called testicular feminisation syndrome.’

Trixie is on hand to look after Lois as she comes to terms with the discovery (Picture: BBC)

Intersex people are typically born with both typically male and female biological characteristics. This includes sexual organs or tissue that is traditionally assigned to each gender.



Testicular feminisation syndrome (Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome) is a genetic condition (disorder) that means XY fetuses are unresponsive to male hormones as they grow in the womb. Babies are born looking like girls but often their reproductive organs have not developed, as in the program where Lois is found to have testes where her ovaries should be and no womb.

It’s now referred to as androgen insensitivity syndrome and is considered an intersex condition.

Lois is left beside herself at the idea that she can now not have children, and is left having an identity crisis as she discovered this fundamental part of her had changed.

Calling off the wedding, she later breaks the news to her furious mother, who blames her midwife for not noticing sooner.

Lois’s fiancee vows he loves her anyway as they face a life without having kids (Picture: BBC)

However, Trixie was on hand to make her feel better about the situation, and told her: ‘You’re still the same kind lovely person, with a family and a fiancé that love you very much.’

‘Our bodies are only part of who we are.’

The story ends with her fiance finding out the truth, and vowing to love and marry her anyway.

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Call The Midwife has become known for tackling the difficult and often overlooked subjects.

This series alone, the midwives have dealt with the fallout of illegal abortions, losing women in the process, as well as newborn babies born with a cleft pallet.

Call The Midwife continues Sundays at 8pm on BBC1.

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