People-hermaphrodites: who are they?

"The queen gave birth on the night either the son or the daughter ..." This excerpt from the work of A.S. Pushkin "The Tale of Tsar Saltan" is very much in tune with the theme of hermaphroditism, which is topical at all times. We sometimes think about what it is like to be such a person? What a feeling, when you are completely devoid of sex? And how does this affect your personal life?

First of all, it is worthwhile to understand that people-hermaphrodites - are individuals who have sexual characteristics of both men and women. The name goes back to Greek mythology, when the passionately in love Hermaphrodite (son of Hermes and Aphrodite) decided to unite with the nymph Salmakida. In mythology they are called androgynous - mythical beings, pervolyudi, connecting in themselves and the masculine, and the feminine. But this is just a mythology, set forth by Plato, but in real life everything is different. After all, people-hermaphrodites are completely barren. And as in our time to live, realizing that you are a middle-aged man and you can not have children. Only one case is known, when the hermaphrodite was capable of normal sexual relations. This individual had a penis of 14 cm and a vagina of 8.5 cm. She also had both ovaries and testicles. She experienced menstruation and spewed out the seed, could live as a man, and as a woman. But this is an isolated case. Often, bisexual people-hermaphrodites instead of ovaries have a mixture of tissue from the testicles and ovaries, which can not produce any hormones: there are no follicles and no eggs. Often there is a combination of the penis and vagina, or penis and breast size 4.

Most often, hermaphrodites are people whose genes contain a mutation that rewards their elect with both female and male sexual organs. Less often, the culprit is heredity. Also people-hermaphrodites are born in marriages, which are concluded between blood relatives. In general, less than one percent of the world's population are androgynous. Previously, it was almost impossible to identify them, as they tried to hide their belonging to the middle genus. To confirm or refute the presence of hermaphroditism in humans, it is necessary to conduct a series of tests, to pass many tests, including chromosomal.

Many authors in their teachings turned to this difficult topic. One of them, Eugenides Jeffrey, in his author's work, The Mean Gender, clearly described the state of a person when he finds out that she is he, and also the further life of the hermaphrodite among ordinary people. But all this happened in the 20s of the last century ...

Time passes, morals change, at the moment the attitude towards people-hermaphrodites is quite tolerant. But there remains a church, which to this day does not perceive them as full-fledged people, believing that such a person should choose whom he wants to be: a man or a woman. But it is almost impossible, despite the fact that surgical plastic results. All because of the fact that people-hermaphrodites can not exactly know to which sex they belong more. They will be made of a woman, and they are more like a man - the strength, the structure of the figure. Or, conversely, becoming a man, they are a fragile figure and the tenderness of a person resembles a woman. The way out is and will always be - to reconcile with who you are, and accept it, no matter how bitter the truth.