SO YEAH, here's some ~Lafayette Intersex Info~. I talk about biological sex kinda bluntly sometimes, so... idk, be aware of that.
The only thing that's for sure canon about Lafayette in terms of intersex medical conditions is that Lafayette has ambiguous genitalia. That is to say anatomy-wise, he's not "biologically male" or "biologically female".**
Anything else (karyotype, any other conditions) is up to you, really. :Y
That said, I do draw him with the headcanon (??) that he has an XY karyotype, and has hypogonadism/low testosterone. More specifically, I think of him as having hypogonadotrophic hypogonadism (HH), which is a type of hypogonadism where a person doesn't go through puberty because of low testosterone. I more or less mentioned the idea back in this post when I mentioned him possibly having Kallmann syndrome. (HH is the same thing as KS, except people with HH have a sense of smell.)
HH and hypogonadism aren't necessarily intersex conditions (intersex people can have HH or hypogonadism, but non-intersex people can too), but him having either of these conditions would have an effect on his masculine/feminine appearance/characteristics. (Basically, his secondary sex characteristics.) I'M NOT SURE HOW ACCURATE ANY OF THIS STUFF IS B/C I'M NOT A DOCTOR, but based on me reading up on KS, HH, and hypogonadism, here's some of the physical effects that I choose to portray:
- A youthful appearance
- Short stature (though that's not necessarily a characteristic of HH; I think people with HH often get really tall, actually;;; THOUGH SHORT STATURE CAN HAPPEN, ACCORDING TO THE INTERNET...)
- Eunuchoid proportions (some breast development, wider hips, longer arms??? I'm never consistent with the arms though idk haha;;)
- Minimal muscle definition
- No body hair
- No deepening of the voice during puberty age
Here's a video someone with Kallmann Syndrome did for some sort of reference?? Idk.
Him having HH would also more or less be the reason why he's disinterested in sex/has no sex drive. Though I don't think that people with HH are necessarily always without a sex drive...? I've read that people with HH who undergo testosterone treatment develop a sex drive. (Laf doesn't get testosterone or any other hormone treatment in his lifetime, though)
Also I was wondering what kind of effect HH would have on his singing voice... I guess he's technically like a castrato...? In that his voice never deepens during puberty and he goes through singing training. I also recently found out there was a jazz singer with KS named Little Jimmy Scott, so idk I guess that's another sort of reference point for how Lafayette's singing voice might sound (in addition to the stuff I put here).
I don't know if Lafayette would ever be officially diagnosed with HH--he would probably link anything about not being masculine in appearance with him being intersex rather than think of himself as someone who didn't go through puberty. Lafayette has drama with his physical appearance for a little bit in middle school, but after understanding that he's intersex, discomfort surrounding his body image and stuff gradually levels off. So he doesn't really take notice that he's not going through puberty, he just thinks he looks the way he does because he's intersex. I also hear that stuff like HH and Kallmann's syndrome and other delayed-puberty-related conditions don't get diagnosed very easily because they're not terribly well known. Some people also get brushed off as "late bloomers" and stuff, apparently. But idk.
ANYWAY, none of this stuff about HH and whatever is necessarily canon. It's just how I imagine things. :^Y Since I wanna keep stuff with Laf's sex kinda open, the only thing that'd ever canonically appear in any sort of comics or stories is Lafayette learning he's intersex rather than anything about puberty or testosterone stuff.
BUT YEAH. Basically, the main thing to take away from this is Lafayette is intersex and the rest is up 2 u.
(**I know these terms are kind of looked down on in the trans+intersex community, but I used them here because I thought they'd be the easiest to understand in this context.)
