The medical condition / CAH

When Lisa-Lee was born doctors believed that she was male, she never found out that she was a fully functioning female until the age of 19. This is because Lisa-Lee was born with the rare inter-sex medical condition called, 'Congenital adrenal hyperplasia' (CAH).

The condition called 'congenital adrenal hyperplasia' (CAH), leads to an exessive outpouring of the male hormone testosterone during the early part of foetal life; while the genes are thoroughly xx female, an inherited faulty gene blocks production of an essential enzyme. The deficiency leads to upsets in the body's hormone balance and causes the adrenal glands to produce low levels of cortisol, the stress hormone; in response, the pituitary (the body's conductor gland) pushes the adrenals into top gear to make more cortisol, because of the enzyme deficiency, they secrete more and more testosterone and in the most severe cases, like Lisa-Lee's, the hormone leads to fusion of the female genitalia and in some an enlarged clitoris, making it quite easy to mistake new born girls for boys, though ovaries and womb remain intact, making it possible for Lisa-Lee to have children of her own. Congenital adrenal hyperplasia is a disorder that affects one in 15,000 births world wide, with varying degrees of masculinisation.

What this means in a more simple way is, while Lisa-Lee was in her mothers womb, she was over exposed to the male hormone testosterone, this resulted in her female genitalia being fused and enlarged, so it looked like a male penis, this is why doctors believed that Lisa-Lee was male, and why she grew up believing this herself.

Famous relatives

Lisa Lee Dark was born in the spring, April 16; she was born to become a star and work in the entertainment industry, fame and entertainment run in her blood. Lisa-Lee's great great great great aunt was the Victorian opera singer 'Adelina Patti' (1843-1919); Adelina was the heighest paid opera singer in the world and classed as one of the all time greats. Lisa-Lee is related to her by Adelina's second marrige to a French tenor, not many people know this but Lisa-Lee's surname is a French surname, but it was most likely spelt D'ark, but gradually over time it became Dark.

Lisa-Lee's great great aunt and God-mother was the Hollywood legend 'Bette Davis' (1908-1989), Bette was classed as one of the greatest screen actresses of the 20th century, she was also the heighest paid actress in the world during the 1930's and 1940's.

Lisa-Lee was also at one point distantly related to the screen actor Sir Anthony Hopkins. Lisa-Lee is unsure if they are still related, Lisa-Lee says, "coming from a small place like Wales means that you have a lot of links and connections to lots of people, it's very easy to find yourself related to lots of people, whether they are famous or not".

Lisa-Lee's family tree is very difficult to research as there have been a lot of adoptions in the family, and a lot of relatives have brought up other family members children, due to death and other things, so a lot of these children had their names changed later in life and got adopted.

Official Lisa Lee Dark Blog

This is the official blog of Swansea born opera singer Lisa Lee Dark; Lisa-Lee is becoming a well known opera singer, but she is also known for being born with the rare inter-sex medical condition, 'congenital adrenal hyperplasia' (CAH); plus she is related to two of the most famous women in the world from the last 200 years; her great great great great aunt was the Victorian opera singer Adelina Patti (1843-1919); and her God-mother and great great aunt was the Hollywood legend Bette Davis (1908-1989).

Lisa-Lee is no stranger to the entertainment industry; she was discovered singing in her local park, Ravenhill, at the age of six by music manager / record producer Chris Jenkins; but it took her three years to build up enough confidence to begin recording, and from the tender age of nine her recording career began. Lisa-Lee has never looked back since or stopped recording her unique voice.

Lisa-Lee has also recorded lead vocals for the Christian, new age, classical ambient group, 'New Era'; on top of all the above Lisa-Lee has done voice over acting work on several low budget European horror movies and four Hollywood movies. Lisa-Lee's main ambitions now, are to continue building up her opera and music career, and get involved in film making, writing scripts, directing, acting and creating new independent films.