Hermaphroditism is a phenomenon in which the individual is and, either simultaneously or alternately (successive hermaphroditism).

He opposes to that which corresponds to the separated sex.

In the, comes from the union between and, born on the mount. As he was bathing in a spring, the source, he fell in love with him. She was repulsed, then made the vow that the gods unite their two bodies to become one and was granted. This gave birth to one human being male and female at a time, which has been represented in the statuary as endowed with a penis and breasts. The legend is particularly reported in the d '.

The representations of Hermaphrodite are frequent in art, especially antique. One of the most famous is the sleeping Hermaphrodite, a statue of the main examples of which are on display at the and.

In the human species the term "hermaphroditism" (true or pseudo) is used in everyday language to refer to the. The term hermaphroditism applied to humans began to be used by medicine towards the end of and at the beginning of. Some doctors consider hermaphroditism as one.

A person suffering from this condition is most often infertile, even if one reports cases of or. The rates of and of often tend to inhibit one another (so that neither the breasts nor the hair system develop normally, and sometimes the external organs remain too underdeveloped to easily allow a coitus with penetration).

At birth, we generally practice the ablation of the least developed attribute, operation doubled by one. This operation is strongly contested and considered as a traumatic and unnecessary genital mutilation. One can also determine oneself by studying the des.

There are different types of hermaphroditism, true hermaphroditism, female pseudo-hermaphroditism, and:

True hermaphroditism refers to a rare case of intersex: the person is endowed with variable sex chromosomes (XX, XY), but is most often born with sexual ambiguity and the simultaneous presence of testicular and ovarian tissues, leading to the development of structures masculine (true erectile and) and feminine (and). There are only about 500 cases officially registered in France, the female pseudo-hermaphrodite has ovaries and a karyotype (46, XX) with ambiguous external genitalia. It is due to early exposure to, which may occur if the subject has one, if his mother has an adrenal tumor or has been exposed to inappropriate hormonal therapy. The external genitalia (EMB) are virilized in a variable way, the clitoris can have the shape of a penis with hypospadias, the scrotum is always empty, there is sometimes a vaginal obliteration. The internal genitals (vagina, uterus, ovaries and fallopian tubes) are normal. Pregnancy is possible, the male pseudo-hermaphrodite has gonads and karyotype (46, XY) associated with ambiguous genital tract and external genitalia (EMG). It is due to a deficiency in (DHT, a hormone derived from testosterone and regulating the male differentiation of the external genitalia) by 5 alpha-reductase mutation deficiency. It may be due to a deficit in, in this case the and and androgen-dependent channels for their differentiation are also affected. In isolated deficiencies of 5 alpha reductase, EMBs can progress to male differentiation at puberty, under the effect of pubertal production of testosterone, the subject may have children normally.There is also a genetic pathology called: insensitivity to androgens (or vulgarly "feminizing testicle") in which it is the gene that encodes the testosterone receptor that is mutated and gives a non-functional receptor, in this case the individual has testicles, produces testosterone, but that it's totally ineffective. These persons therefore have a karyotype (46, XY), but external female genitalia, at the time of puberty no change of male nature will occur, however, a normal breast development will occur (since under estrogenic dependence, the estrogens having in this case an adrenal origin) and an absence of pubic and axillary pilosities (because under androgenic dependence). It is advisable to operate these people and remove the testicles that can not go down into the purses (absent) because if they remain in place intra-abdominal position, they can degenerate into cancerous tumors. These externally completely female people (and also internally: they have a vagina) have no uterus and obviously no ovarian cycle, so no rules and are sterile.

  There were intersex people who became pregnant and carried their babies to term. It is