I am a 63-year-old man living in Canada. I have never known anyone with Kallmann's and my knowledge and coping strategies with this rare condition were acquired by personal effort and research.

In 1961 my family physician decided to administer testosterone to trigger puberty. The only diagnosis he offered back then, less than 20 years after Franz Kallmann's studies, was "sexual infantilism". Since I was a military brat my treatment was protracted and sometimes interrupted, so my plasma testosterone level remained somewhat low, but puberty took place.

Childhood anemia was routine for me, and I was treated with iron injections which did nothing, since the anemia was a secondary affect of the Kallmann's. The anemia and its fatigue, the lack of bone development, and limited muscular strength meant I had a childlike, and pale appearance. An apparent breakage of my wrist at age 22 revealed by X-Ray that I had "green-stick" bones which had not fused - I was told I had the bones of a 12-year-old.

I managed to conceal the Kallmans when joining the military to train as a pilot. However, at age 25, in 1971, a flight surgeon was curious about my youthful physique and sent me to an endocronolist at the University of Saskatchewan Medical Hospital. It was this physican, Doctor C. N. Beck, who asked me about ability to smell, and who did the other tests which confirmed my condition and sterility. He doubted that FSH treatment would alter the latter situation. He also, kindly I thought, assured me that my penis size was quite normal. Monthly testosterone was prescribed, and my physical development progressed more rapidly because of this.

There are several practical life-issues that I learned to cope with, and perhaps the following are the most germane:

a. since I looked much younger than I was, the world I worked in did not confer the same status on me. I sometimes had difficulty in convincing people of my occupation (military and commercial pilot). This challenge gradually went away, but I was in my mid-30s before I was no longer asked to present identification to show I was over 21-years of age. The greatest challenge for me was presenting to the world a masculine appearance without self-evident masculine physical traits. Only middle-age has provided a solution to that!
Today I have normal facial hair, and have to shave daily. Until I was in my 30s this was not the case. I finally grew a full moustache in my late 30s to help me look older. It was a big help.

b. sterility presented both good and bad challenges. Obviously, when dating women I was at no risk of impregnating my lovers. On the other hand, I knew I could not have my own children, and sometimes the curiousity of others about this was intrusive. Many people confuse sterility with libido - sexual capability is not the same as fertility but in the 1970s and 80s, pre-AIDS, a lack of children in my marriage provoked thoughtless comments.

c. family physicians still have little knowledge of HH - my most recent doctor put "Klinefelter Syndrome" on my chart, an inaccuracy that I have had to correct. As one who has lived a lifetime with Kallmann's I know far more than anyone other than a specialist in the field.

d. another inherited condition I have is thallasemia (small red blood cells), believed to be most prevalent among peoples in the Mediterranean region. My sister has the condition, and has passed it to her biological children. The combination of anemia due to Kallmann's and smaller red blood cells due to thallasemia is not something I have encountered. No other member of my family has been diagnosed with Kallmann's, and there is no known history in the family of Mediterranean (Greek/Arabic) predecessors.

Many of the allied issues and subjects raised on this WEB site (intersex, gender identity, discomfort in social interaction, fatigue) have not been a part of my adult life experience. I would like to know someone of my generation (I was born in 1946) who has lived a long period with Kallmann's while taking testosterone replacement therapy. It might be useful in the context of other medical challenges that face me as I grow old.

I would be happy to participate in any clinical studies.

Kind regards,

Wayne Ralph