When Sophie Ottaway was a teenager she often had to go to the doctor. All she knew was that she had been born with medical complications, that her ovaries were damaged and had been removed, and from the age of 11 she had to take hormones.
But when she was 22, she went for a routine appointment for tonsillitis. Sophie hated medical appointments, so her mother always liked to accompany her on visits to the doctor. On this occasion her regular GP was on holiday and she saw a locum at the practice she went to near Hull in England.
The locum’s computer screen was directly in Sophie’s eyeline and on it were her medical notes. “Sophie Ottaway,” it began. “46XY chromosome. Prolapsed bowels through abdominal defect – bladder reconstruction, testes and phallus removed, vaginal construction . . .”
She had been born a boy.
“It was on the screen in bold font,” Sophie says. “I could read it from where I was sitting. And I looked at Mum and saw that she had clocked it, and then she clocked that I’d seen it. I never wanted to cause a scene in those days so I didn’t say anything, and Mum didn’t say anything – and we finished the consultation, I got my antibiotics and left. But then I hit the roof.
“I got in the car and I just f*****g exploded. I remember coming home, going to the fridge and cracking open a bottle of beer, going into my room and slamming the door and Mum coming up and trying to talk to me and I was just shouting at her: ‘I don’t want to talk to you! I don’t want to know! F*** off!’”
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der 19 October 2023-Ausgabe von YOU South Africa.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent ? Anmelden
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der 19 October 2023-Ausgabe von YOU South Africa.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent? Anmelden
BALLON IN THE BAG
Manchester City midfielder Rodrigo Hernandez Cascante says his Ballon d'Or win is a victory for Spanish football
IT WAS ALL A LIE
A new doccie exposes the Grey's Anatomy writer who fabricated her life story
'I WILL NEVER GIVE UP'
After her husband, anticorruption activist Alexei Navalny, was poisoned and murdered by the Kremlin, she became the public face of Russia's opposition. In this candid interview Yulia Navalnaya opens up about life on the run, her perilous family life and why she's continuing her husband's fight to save their country
AGREE TO DISAGREE
Trevor Noah on how his childhood squabbles with his mother inspired his delightful new book
PAUSE THE CLOCK
Researchers have discovered that the ageing process spikes at 44 and 60. Here's what you can do to slow it down
MPOOMY ON TOP
We chat to SA's most popular female podcaster about love, loss and her booming success
MY BROTHER IS NOT TO BLAME
Tinus Drotské says his sibling, ex Bok Nǎka, is the victim in the brawl with a neighbour that landed up in court
MATT THE RECLUSE
A year after his friend's tragic death, the actor continues to shun the spotlight
A LEAP OF FAITH
After her husband tried to kill her by tampering with her parachute she thought she'd never trust a man again-but now she's found love
THEY'RE MY KIDS!
This West Coast woman treats her monkeys as iftheyre humans and animal activists are not happy about it