Cloacal exstrophy is a very serious medical condition in which, during fetal development, the wall of the abdomen does not close correctly. The child born with cloacal exstrophy is born with many of its internal abdominal organs (including the intestines and bladder) exposed. A child with cloacal exstrophy needs a series of surgeries to survive.
In cases of cloacal exstrophy, whether the child is male or female, the external genitals do not develop properly. As a consequence, in addition to being a very serious congenital anomaly, cloacal exstrophy is a disorder of sex development (DSD). Recall that DSD are defined by the medical community as “congenital conditions in which development of chromosomal, gonadal or anatomic sex is atypical.” In this case, although chromosomal and gonadal sex is usually formed typically, the anatomic sex (the external genitalia) is not formed in the sex-typical fashion.
Posted in: Specific Conditions