“I notices you use the word hermaphrodite ……I was of the understanding that this was politically incorrect these days and have pulled people up on it. I thought the term is now intersex….could you please clarify that for me.”

➡

The word hermaphrodite refers to someone who is biologically half male and half female – they will have a functioning ovary and a functioning Testicle. Jessica was born in the late 40s – extremely well endowed, she had a blind vagina so could not have given birth to children naturally but upon investigation by the Garvan Institute was found to have a viable ovary. She did father twin girls who are both Lesbian.

As a teen she used to get monthly pains in her stomach and developed beautiful natural breasts. She was raised a boy though knew herself to be a girl – female.

I don’t know the details for someone who tends towards being male as per what happens regarding physical development. Remember someones appearance is quite separate from their gender

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intersexuality 😀 😳

If Jessica had been male rather than female it would have been her breasts that would be removed but in her case it was that yukky thing.

Though the term Intersexed might be more politically correct it doesn’t quite cover all the contingencies of being a fertile human being.

Intersexuality in humans refers to intermediate or atypical combinations of physical features that usually distinguish male from female. This is usually understood to be congenital, involving chromosome, morphologic, genital and/or gonadal anomalies, such as diversion from stereotypical XX=female or XY=male presentations, such as sex reversal (XY=female, XX=male), genital ambiguity, sex developmental differences. An intersex organism may have biological characteristics of both the male and female sexes.[1] Intersexuality is the term adopted by medicine during the 20th century applied to human beings whose biological sex cannot be classified as either male or female.[2][3][4] Intersexuality is also the word adopted by the identity-political movement, to criticize medical protocols in sex assignment and to claim the right to be heard in the construction of a new one.

In Jessica’s case her sex chromosones are something like the following

http://content.karger.com/ProdukteDB/produkte.asp?Doi=129719

The chromosomes were studied in a human intersex (“true hermaphrodite”) characterized by ambiguous external genitalia and abdominal gonads consisting of a left ovotestis and a right primitive testis. The tissues sampled for chromosome studies (two skin biopsies, right gonad and blood) contained cells having 46, 47 and 49 chromosomes and XX, XXY or XXYYY sex chromosomes respectively. This finding strongly supports the concept that testicular tissue develops only in the presence of the Y chromosome. It is considered plausible that all human íntersexes are chromosomal mosaics. The cytological investigations of the apparent exceptions so far reported in the literature (intersexes with XX sex chromosomes) have been confined to a single tissue specimen.

Copyright © 1962 S. Karger AG, Basel

Intersexed people have at least 6 presentations regarding anatomy/sex from quite minor differences such as a micropenis or, on the otherhand an elongated clitoris.

Some conditions develop in the womb, and as we are coming to say among the FTM, here in NSW – that we are brain interssexed or cross wired.

So far as gender goes for any of us it isn’t binary or perhaps not even tertiary. I know someone who is span -sexual and has taken the physical form of androgeny. She/was male/ has chosen not to have breasts, identifies as female but is very happy to be either or both genders at one and the same time and is asexual,or perhaps bisexual

Sorry for long answers – it is my only fault – not

😳

So then are transexuals and gender-queer individuals also brain-intersexed? I was under the impression that intersexual refered to only physical ambguities in relation to gender and anatomy and that those who experience their gender ambguity on a psychological level were either transexual or refered to by the more encompassing term “gender-queer”. Can someone, who has made not attempt to, nor wants to, change their basic anatomy (genitalia, breasts, chest etc.) be considered intersexual?

sandy

intersex people are born with parts of either sex they some times might be only small parts bit they are still intersex.

they can have surgery to help correct it.

i think that is what yyou are asking.

leece

preferred term these days is an intersex person

http://www.glaad.org/Page.aspx?pid=376

Hi Leece

I’ve just read your story and everyone’s comments.

I can’t imagine how difficult your journey has been and yet you have survived and faced everything with great courage. Your story is a real inspiration.

It’s really good that we’re talking about this and in the process of learning from each other. I recall having my tonsils out at age 5 and being drawn to notice a fellow patient who was quite sickly. It has stayed with me that I couldn’t determin which gender the child was and my mother couldn’t either when asked. I don’t think there was any judgment about this, just an awareness that we couldn’t clearly say if this person was a boy or girl. Since that time, I’ve often thought how incredibly difficult it would be being born into the wrong body or having dissonance between outer anatomy and identity. As a society, we do like to label or categorise and yet it seems that gender, identity, orientation, anatomy etc are all much, much more complex than we once thought. I’m also interested to hear of the article/book that talks about the 9 genders.

I used to work in sexual health and LOVED those times . My colleagues were the kindest people I’ve worked with and there was at least one transsexual dr (MTF) on staff who was lovely. I also nursed some people who’d had F/U procedures after their gender reassignments (FTM) and they looked great. In fact, if they hadn’t told me about their previous transitional surgeries, I wouldn’t have known.

Anyway, I look forward to learning more about transsexual and intersex experiences. This dialogue is so important and needed.

Blessings to all,

Ann Maree