Osteoporosis means that the bones have less than usual density, which makes them brittle and weak. Osteoporosis doesn’t hurt—you can’t feel anything happening—until your bones get so weak that they break easily. Steroid hormones (sex hormones produced by ovaries or testes, or taken as medicine) are necessary to prevent osteoporosis.

The ovaries are the female gonads (sex glands) located in the lower abdomen of most girls and women, usually one on either side of the uterus. The ovaries have two basic functions, ovulation and the production of hormones, mainly estrogens and progesterone which influence a woman’s feminine physical characteristics and affect the reproductive process.

Ovotestes are gonads (sex glands) containing both ovarian and testicular tissue. These are sometimes present in place of one or both ovaries or testes in people with DSDs.