True hermaphroditism

True hermaphroditism
Classification and external resources
OMIM	400045
DiseasesDB	29664
eMedicine	med/1702
MeSH	D050090
[]

True hermaphroditism, now clinically known as ovotesticular disorder of sex development, is a medical term for an intersex condition in which an individual is born with ovarian and testicular tissue. More commonly one or both gonads is an ovotestis containing both types of tissue.

Although similar in some ways to mixed gonadal dysgenesis, the conditions can be distinguished histologically.

The term derives from the Latin: hermaphroditus, from Ancient Greek: ἑρμαφρόδιτος hermaphroditos, which derives from Hermaphroditos ( Ἑρμαϕρόδιτος), the son of Hermes and Aphrodite in Greek mythology. According to Ovid, he fused with the nymph Salmacis resulting in one individual possessing physical traits of both sexes; according to the earlier Diodorus Siculus, he was born with a physical body combining both sexes. The word hermaphrodite entered the English lexicon in the late fourteenth century.

External genitalia are often ambiguous, the degree depending mainly on the amount of testosterone produced by the testicular tissue between 8 and 16 weeks of gestation.

This condition is very rare. There are several ways in which this may occur.

There are no documented cases in which both types of gonadal tissue function. Encountered karyotypes are 47XXY, 46XX/46XY, or 46XX/47XXY, and various degrees of mosaicism.

...
Wikipedia