A person born XY with testes (usually in the abdominal cavity). The external genitalia are usually female but can be ambiguous. Male pseudo-hermaphrodites occur when there are internal testes (normally in the abdominal area) and the outer genitals are either incompletely formed, as an extremely short penis, or even, formed more closely to those related to a female’s genitalia. The vagina may be short and not wholly developed. FEMALE PSEUDO A person born XX with normal female internal organs but with “masculanized” genitalia. They can appear more male then female or a combination of each.
CAUSES The most common cause is Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome (AIS). This is when the body doesn’t respond to the androgen being produced. There are different variations: Complete (CAIS) , and Partial (PAIS). This condition has a variety of names and occurance rates.. Female pseudo-hermaphrodites occur when the internal organs are female but the outer genitals are masculinized. For example, the labia may be semi-fused (or closed), and the clitoris enlarged, looking like a smaller version of a penis. This can occur when an excess of male hormones interacts with the fetus.
The most common cause of female pseudo-hermaphrodites is the disorder Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia (CAH). This is when the adrenal glands overproduce testosterone. Another cause is when the mother takes or encounters male hormones such as testosterone. TRUE PSEUDO True hermaphrodites are born with both ovarian and testicular tissue. The tissue can either be combined or people can have one of each that are separated. In these cases, if female genitalia are present and the baby has an XX chromosome, they are raised to be female.
On the other hand if they have outer male genitalia and the XY chromosome, they are raised male. The outer appearance of true hermaphrodites may be ambiguous and look neither fully male nor female. A split scrotum, partially fused labia and a phallus, ranging from a small penis to an enlarged clitoris are all common in ambiguous genitalia. The causes are not known, The medical community does know this is a very rare condition but do not have accurate figures to how many people have this condition (depending on the literature between 350-450 known cases).
CAUSES The most common is Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia (CAH) it occurs approximately 1:14,000 births. This is when the adrenal glands overproduce testosterone. It also has been recorded that some persons with this disorder had been exposed to progesterone-like drugs before they were born. RELATED DISORDERS Turner’s Syndrome Klinefelter’s Syndrome Going through the frequency and variables of hermaphrodites, a conducted research came out with 1. 7% statistics of hermaphrodites out of 100% births.
This is relatively low when compared to other disabilities that could happen as a pre birth. The major personal impact on hermaphrodite is not all that hard except that of individual differences which would make the impact of one hermaphrodite different from the other. But the general impacts that could be aired are that of confidentiality to the outside world but when it comes to marriage and relationship, it becomes a negative impact that brings about thinking stress.
Though the best option for an hermaphrodite now is the issue of technology: because any affected individual can always go the hospital for surgery and choose a better organ while the other would be a thing of the past.
Sources
Battle of the Hermaphrodites: Science News Online, Sept. 16, 2006 www. simple. wikepedia. org Hermaphrodites and the Medical Invention of Sex by Alice Domurat Dreger Sexual Conflict – by Locke www. google. com/hermaphrodites. htm