Hermaphrodites

[Romeo]

Hermaphroditism is rare among humans, but not unknown. There are documented cases. Now, certain invertebrate animals are hermaphrodite, but still need to pair up to reproduce, but there have been cases of such a creature impregnating itself, resulting in self-cloning. So far, this has not been known to happen to a human hermaphrodite, but could it be theoretically possible?

[Scarlett]

I don't see why not. YOu only have to look at things like 2 headed sheep to see that we are all freaks of nature one way or another, and just because we are human doesn't make us any different from animals, plants etc. The human would have to have not just functioning reproductive organs, but all the inner bits to make and store sperm as well as house and grow a baby. Many hermaphrodites have versions of male and femail genitals, but may have female insides etc. In theory, if they had all these necessary parts, they could impregnate themselves.

[gen2]

Hermaphrodite invertebrates only have to produce fertilised eggs - a relatively simple process compared with the placental mammals. Many more hormones are involved in human reproduction and not only are their relative levels important, but also the timing of changes in those levels. In a true human hermaphrodite, the two hormone systems would interfere with each other and the person would not function efficiently (in the reproductive sense) as either a male or as a female. Gender assignment surgery would be necessary before either one reproductive system would function effectively. A self-fertile human hermaphrodite would therefore not be possible.