Intersex is a group of conditions in which there is a discrepancy between the external genitals and the internal genitals (the testes and ovaries). The older term for this condition is hermaphroditism.
The term intersexuality was coined by Richard Goldschmidt in the 1917 paper Intersexuality and the endocrine aspect of sex. The first suggestion to replace the term 'hermaphrodite' with 'intersex' came from British specialist Cawadias in the 1940s. This suggestion was taken up by specialists in the UK during the 1960s.
True hermaphroditism is a rare form of intersex anomaly where both male and female gonads are present. True hermaphrodites diagnosed in the past have been preferentially reared as males.
Intersex people are born with sex characteristics (including genitals, gonads and chromosome patterns) that do not fit typical binary notions of male or female bodies. Intersex is an umbrella term used to describe a wide range of natural bodily variations.
There are many different ways someone can be intersex. Some intersex people have genitals or internal sex organs that fall outside the male/female categories — such as a person with both ovarian and testicular tissues.
Some intersex people have both testes and ovaries. You may be able to get pregnant on your own, if you also have a uterus. However, if you have testes, they may be releasing more testosterone than would be optimal for conception and pregnancy.
A uterus is always present, but the internal genitalia otherwise vary greatly, often including both male and female structures. The external genitalia are usually ambiguous, and a sizable phallus is present; therefore, most of these children are raised as males.
The older term for this condition is hermaphroditism. Although the older terms are still included in this article for reference, they have been replaced by most experts, patients, and families. Increasingly, this group of conditions is being called disorders of sex development (DSDs).
Background: There are 11 reported cases of pregnancy in true hermaphrodites, but none with advanced genetic testing. All known fetuses have been male. Case: A true hermaphrodite with a spontaneous pregnancy prenatally known to have a remaining portion of a right ovotestis, delivered a male neonate.
Caster Semenya, 800 m Olympic gold medalist. Edinanci Silva, Brazilian judoka and gold medalist in the woman's half-heavyweight division at the Pan-American games. Dawn Langley Simmons (1937 or 1922 to 2000), English author and biographer.
Pregnancy in true hermaphrodites is rare. There are ten previously reported cases of pregnancy in true hermaphrodites with no reports on antenatal management.
One is synchronous hermaphrodites, in which mature testicular and ovarian tissues are present at the same time, and both produce sperm and ova, respectively.
Unfortunately, a lot of intersex people don't always have that experience, and may not even know that they're intersex. Sometimes that's because doctors will hide it from us or treat it as something shameful, or because it's hard to access accurate information about intersex traits.
An individual could be a female or a male (with typical feminine or masculine external genitalia, respectively), a female or male pseudohermaphrodite, or a true hermaphrodite.
Molecules on the sperm and eggs of hermaphroditic organisms ensures that they mate with others.
Significant gynecomastia is evident at puberty in approximately 75% of individuals with true hermaphroditism. Approximately 50% of these individuals menstruate. For the phenotypic male with true hermaphroditism, menstruation presents as cyclic hematuria.
Hermaphrodites can reproduce asexually through self-fertilization. The progeny generated through asexual reproduction in a hermaphrodite is genetically identical to the parent species.
In English, the four genders of noun are masculine, feminine, common, and neuter.
Although many intersex people are heterosexual and cisgender, this overlap and "shared experiences of harm arising from dominant societal sex and gender norms" has led to intersex people often being included under the LGBT umbrella, with the acronym sometimes expanded to LGBTI.
No. Intersex people have secondary characteristics of both sexes or the outward appearance of the opposite of their genetic sex, but they don't have egg and Sperm production simultaneously.
It is estimated that up to 1.7 percent of the population has an intersex trait and that approximately 0.5 percent of people have clinically identifiable sexual or reproductive variations.
Intersex is a general term used for a variety of conditions in which a person is born with a reproductive or sexual anatomy that doesn't seem to fit the typical definitions of female or male. For example, a person might be born appearing to be female on the outside, but having mostly male-typical anatomy on the inside.
Intersex activists have preferred the word intersex, since the word hermaphrodite is considered to be stigmatizing, as well as "scientifically specious and clinically problematic." There are no hermaphroditic species among mammals or birds.
Myth 2: Being intersex is very rare
According to experts, around 1.7% of the population is born with intersex traits – comparable to the number of people born with red hair.