Doctors in the UK routinely lied to patients with disorders of sex development known as intersex conditions, the BBC has found. A leading paediatric consultant told BBC Radio 4 that withholding the truth of patients' diagnoses had been "widespread".

Jeanette, now 71, was operated on at the age of 16 to remove her hidden testes. She discovered the truth only when she was 50. Jeanette was born with complete androgen insensitivity (CAIS), a genetic disorder occurring in between one in 20,000 and one in 60,000 births.

Ieuan Hughes, emeritus professor of paediatrics at the University of Cambridge and an expert in hormone disorders, says cover-ups used to be routine in cases such as this.

"In those days the consensus in the medical profession was that the truth would not be disclosed to the patient… and the general advice was for parents not to disclose the true diagnoses to the children. Read more via the BBC