Intersexes

Hermaphrodites. Most of us have heard of this but not many can say they know why some people are born this way. A lot of people simply hear the word and are just judge them. Hermaphrodites are also known as intersexes. An intersex is someone who has a mixture of male and female genitals. According to the Intersex Society of North America, an example of an intersex can be a girl born with a large clitoris but lacking a vaginal opening, or a boy can be a boy born with a very small penis or with a scrotum that is divided so that it forms a labia. This condition isn’t very common though. The numbers of how often people are born this way are 1 in 1500 to 1 in 2000.

There are several different reasons why someone can be born as an intersex. A common reason is people are born as intersexes is because of a genetic condition. Sometimes people are born with an XX chromosome pattern but an SRY gene, others because of an atypical hormone pattern. The most common cause of intersex is congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH).

A lot of these people often have trouble finding other like themselves and live an unhappy life. Others have been known to not know that they are classified as an intersex until late in their life and even until they are dead and an autopsy is performed. What I can say is that if we ever know of anyone this way, we should not judge them and treat them the same as anyone else.