Chinese Woman With Two Reproductive System Is A Father And Mother To Her Son

Of the many social media revelations, one is of a woman from southwestern China, surnamed Liu. The reason for her story to make waves is because of the male and female reproductive organs that are present in her body, making her both, a mother and a father to her two sons.

As reported in the South China Morning Post, Liu, as a child was harassed for "looking like a man" and using a women's restroom. Born in Bishan County, in the Chongqing municipality, she identifies as a woman as per her identity card.

At the age of 18, she married a man, surnamed Tang, and the couple had a son. However, shortly after, Liu experienced physical changes, this was a surge in androgenic hormones. As a result, she developed facial hair, a reduction in her breast size and male reproductive organs appeared in her body. Unable to cope with these changes, her husband ended up divorcing her.

Her son's custody was given to Tang, and Liu relocated to another county, where she worked in a shoe factory. It was there she met a woman surnamed Zhou. While same-sex marriage is still illegal in China, Liu sought help from her ex-husband Tang. He agreed to marry Zhou in exchange for Liu's financial support for their son. In the early 2000s, Zhou gave birth to a son, which made Liu the father of the child.

Liu's story gained traction in 2005 and is again making rounds on social media even today. While medical professionals have offered her physical examinations and gender reassignment surgery, she has opted not to pursue it due to the high costs.

This is called hermaphroditism, the condition of having both male and female reproductive organs. While it is usually seen in plants, or animals such as worms, moss animals, snails, slugs, etc., in humans, it is described as intersex.

This is also referred to as disorders of sexual development (DSDs). While these conditions are rare in humans, they do exist. This is known as the ovotesticular disorder or the true hermaphroditism.

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This is when an individual has both, ovarian and testicular tissue. These two may be separated, or combined, and so is called ovotestis. Those who have this disorder have sex chromosomes that show male-female mosaicism, this is where one person possesses both the male XY and the female XX chromosome pairs. The chromosome complement is 46XX, which is most often present. Such individuals have ambiguous external genitalia, with a sizeable phallus. Thus, they are often reared as males. However, breast development happens during puberty, and some may also menstruate and in rare cases, they can actually produce sperm. For Liu, this was her case.

If diagnosed at birth, the choice of sex was made usually by parents based on the condition of the external genitalia, after which intersex surgery was performed to remove the gonads of the opposite sex.

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