Intersexuality - Introduction

Terms

Ancient Greek vase painting of a dancing hermaphrodite

In the current medical and socio-political discussion, the modern term “intersexuality” (from lat. inter: between and sexus: sex) has replaced the learned, and more poetic term “hermaphroditism”. (However, this traditional term is still being used in plant and animal biology.)
According to an ancient Greek legend, Hermaphroditos was a beautiful young man, the son of the messenger god Hermes (lat. Mercury) and the love goddess Aphrodite (lat. Venus). When he rejected the love of a nymph, she embraced him so passionately, that her body merged with his. Accordingly, from ancient to modern times, a person showing both female and male physical characteristics was called a hermaphrodite.
Another ancient term “androgyne” (from gr. andros: man and gyne: woman) once meant a double-sexed person, i.e. a very strong “double” creature composed of two bodies, one male and the other female. Today, only the adjective “androgynous” still enjoys wider currency, usually in reference to bodies and faces that combine male and female features.
In our time, mythological allusions are considered too imprecise for scientific purposes, and both the doctors and the persons concerned therefore avoid them. This also goes for the older distinctions between so-called “female pseudo-hermaphrodites” (ovaries present), “male pseudo-hermaphodites” (testicles present) and “true hermaphrodites” (both ovarian and testicular tissue present). These distinctions were once considered useful, but have, in the meantime, proved stigmatizing, arbitrary, and impractical. Instead, one now uses the more general term “intersexual person”, “intersexed person”, or “intersex”, for short.
Modern research has shown us that intersexuality is matter of degree, covering a wide spectrum of atypical physical developments with a variety of possible causes. Therefore, no single approach fits all cases. Only a very thorough examination and careful deliberation can show the way to the necessary individual course of action in each case.