# Question about hermaphrodites
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-hermaphrodites/9634
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [April 2, 2000, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-hermaphrodites/9634 "2000-04-02T06:53:00Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Mr\_Socko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Socko)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2000, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-hermaphrodites/9634/1 "2000-04-02T06:53:00Z")
Can a hermaphrodite impregnate itself?
…just wondering.
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### Author:  [@Zico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zico)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2000, 7:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-hermaphrodites/9634/2 "2000-04-02T07:43:00Z")
We had a kid in our school who claimed he could…you know…put his…oh forget it…
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### Author:  [@ubermensch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ubermensch)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2000, 8:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-hermaphrodites/9634/3 "2000-04-02T08:53:00Z")
no.
there are no true hermaphrodites in which both organs work as should. usually the person has a ‘favorite’ sex, that is, if doctors don’t ‘fix’ nature’s error when the kid is young.
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### Author:  [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2000, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-hermaphrodites/9634/4 "2000-04-02T15:52:00Z")
“Hermaphrodites” by and large prefer the term “intersexed.”
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### Author:  [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2000, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-hermaphrodites/9634/5 "2000-04-02T16:54:00Z")
Hijacking this thread, but only a little bit:
What is it with all of those porn sites that feature so-called hermaphrodites? The photos are obviously just pics of normal women that have been computer-altered. I’m as horny as any normal guy, but I cannot comprehend why some people find this sexy. I’ve never seen a real hermaphrodite, but I strongly suspect the image would be more revolting than erotic.
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### Author:  [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2000, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-hermaphrodites/9634/6 "2000-04-03T05:15:00Z")
A hermaphrodite might have a masculine expression of the tissue that in males becomes penis and in females becomes clitoris, and a female expression of the tissue that in females becomes vulva and in males seals together, receives the descending testicles, and becomes scrotum.
Let’s see…
To self-impregnate, a hermaphrodite would need one of the two gonads to have differentiated as a testicle and it would have to have descended into the scrotum, and the corresponding vasa deferen tube would have to have formed and with the urethra, which would have had to feed through the penis; meanwhile, the other gonad would have had to have differentiated as an ovary, the tube that did not become a vasa deferen would have had to have differentiated as a fallopian tube, and a uterus would have to have formed.
The scrotum would have to remain cleft, and the penis would have to bend down in a U-shape and be inserted into the cleft in the scrotum/vagina below it, most likely pressing hard against the testicle located on the one side there as it does so.
That’s just for starters. The necessary hormonal soup for supporting both functionalities is probably impossible; I think the blood chemistry of female fertility and that of male fertility are mutually exclusive; and I don’t know for sure if the cervix has a male analogue, or if the prostate or cowper’s glands have female analogues, but if, for instance, the organ that becomes cervix in the female becomes prostate in the male you’ve got obvious problems.
In practice, no one has a fully differentiated ovary on one side and a fully differentiated testicle on the other. No one has a fully differentiated and descended testicle on one side of an unsealed vulva that opens into a vagina.
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### Author:  [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2000, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-hermaphrodites/9634/7 "2000-04-03T02:53:00Z")
There are also hermaphrodites that are just men who OD on estrogen to the point of growing breasts and losing their masculine hairiness.
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Wrong thinking is punished, right thinking is just as swiftly rewarded. You’ll find it an effective combination.