## 1. Primary characteristics

Boy or girl?
Already at birth you can tell whether the baby has a boy or a girl body. This is called the sex or sex of the baby.
In girls you can see the vagina and labia. In boys the penis and scrotum. Sex characteristics are the differences between male and female animals. In other words: all physical characteristics in which men and women differ.

We distinguish:

The primary sex characteristics: these are the physical differences between boys and girls that are visible from birth.

When a baby is born, it is always checked what is between the legs. Is it a penis with a scrotum? Then we call that a boy. Are there labia and a vagina? Then we call it a girl. Very occasionally it is not immediately apparent whether the baby is a boy or a girl. Then the baby has both female and male sex characteristics. This is called intersex. Sometimes it is not until puberty that a person is found to be intersex.