Your life actually began as a female.

Well, phenotypically or physically speaking that is, though some prefer to call this stage gender neutral.

As you might know, when two people mate, they each combine half of their genetic information together; 23 chromosomes each.

One pair of these chromosomes helps to determine your sex.

If you're female, you contain two X chromosomes, one from your mother and one from your father, while males have one X and one Y chromosome.

At the moment of conception, you were of course male or female based on your genes but the Y chromosome doesn't kick in right away.

In fact, the first five to six weeks of embryonic development are attributed to the X chromosome alone, and females grow from embryo to fully developed to the influence of only the X chromosome.

So what does the Y chromosome do?

Once activated, one of the genes on the Y chromosome known as the SRY gene has two functions: to inhibit certain features of the X chromosome and to impose through dominance the physiological traits that a male must have.

The ovaries descend and become the testes, and the labia fuses to create the scrotum.

If you're a male, take a look.

Though it's more pronounced in some men than others, you'll likely notice a line or ridge of tissue on the scrotum, which is called the "scrotal raphe".

The skin of the scrotum and penis are zipped up like a zipper as the layers of cells develop in the embryo.

And the male variant of the clitoris?

Yep, that's the penis.

If the Y chromosome does not become activated for some reason, then the female phenotype or physical appearance will persist in a male.

Power added, this is also part of the reason males have nipples.

The nipples form before the activation of the Y chromosome and SRY gene and thus remain through development and life.

But, you don't develop breasts, sorry.

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