We explain what intersexuality is and what types of intersexuality exist. Also, other concepts such as pansexuality and transgender.
What is an intersex?
An intersex person or hermaphrodite (an obsolete term) is one whose sexual organs do not correspond to the gender they haveor that has characteristics of both sexes at the same time. It should not be thought that people affected by this congenital condition are men and women “at the same time”, something that is biologically impossible for our species.
In general, those who have intersexuality are born with a sexual organ that is not fully developed or not fully differentiatedwhich may present, for example, a fused vaginal opening or an erectile organ intermediate between the penis and the clitoris, despite having more or less developed and usually internal ovaries or testicles.
This condition can occur to varying degrees and can become more or less functional. There are, thus, four different forms of intersexuality.
See also: Transvestite
Types of intersexuality
- Male pseudohermaphroditism. Known as Morris Syndrome or Testicular Feminization, it occurs in individuals with a male genotype (XY), normal secondary female sexual organs (although the vagina is blind, without a uterus), and testicles formed inside the abdomen.
- Female pseudohermaphroditism. Known as congenital adrenal hyperplasia or adrenogenital syndrome, it occurs in individuals who have a female genotype (XX), a masculinized body, female sexual organs with hypertrophy of the clitoris, or even much more masculinized.
- True hermaphroditism. This medical term is used to refer to individuals who are born with both testicles and ovaries, both with varying levels of total development. It is an extremely rare condition, which causes varying degrees of indeterminate and dysfunctional sexual organs.
- Gonadal dysgenesis. Known as Turner Syndrome, Ullrich-Turner Syndrome or Monosomy X, it is a congenital condition that affects women in which only one complete X chromosome is manifested, instead of two (XX). This produces sterile, boyish-looking individuals, not sexually developed. Its male version is Klinefelter Syndrome (KS), in which the individual has an extra X chromosome (XXY), which causes late and incomplete sexual development, infertility and even learning problems.
There are cases, thus, of intersex people whose bodies have a fully developed female or male sexual apparatus, but whose genetics instead correspond to the other gender. The term intersexual and not hermaphrodite is preferred in these cases, since the latter, coming from Greek mythology, consists of an individual who manifests both sexualities at the same time.
What is a pansexual?
Pansexuality does not have to do with congenital issues, but with sexual orientation. Pansexuals are individuals who can be eroticized, that is, they They can feel sexual desire, both for women and men.without making any distinction between them.
This can occur in both women and men and not to be confused with bisexualityin which the individual presents a preferred but not exclusive erotic genre, and is capable of eventually being with people of the same sex.
What is a transgender?
A transgender person is someone whose biological sex, that is, the body they were born with, does not correspond to the sexual identity that one has on a psychological level. This means that they are people born regularly as a man or a woman, but who feel they belong to the opposite sex, or neither.
The term is also used to name a human community that does not feel represented in the male-female dualityand advocates the acceptance of a “third gender” that would be a mixture of both or, in any case, the absence of gender. In that sense, this concept goes hand in hand with other conceptions such as transsexuality, fluid gender or gender queer.
Continue on: Transgender
