For some reason, this reminded me of Shi Pei Pu, a Chinese opera singer and spy who had a love affair with Bernard Boursicot, a French diplomat.

He told Boursicot that he was “a female Beijing opera singer who had been forced to live as a man to satisfy his father’s wish to have a son”. The two quickly developed a sexual relationship, maintained in darkness. Shi convinced Boursicot that he was a woman.

As the French doctors sent to examine Shi discovered, Shi could create the appearance of having female genitalia by making his testicles ascend into his body cavity and tucking his penis back.