Here is the popular version of the rumor. Is it true Jamie Lee Curtis is a hermaphrodite? I heard she admitted it on Oprah.
Celebrities are always telling us that fame has its downsides — lurid gossip being one of them — and few could make a better case than actress Jamie Lee Curtis, who for two decades has been saddled with rumors that she was a hermaphrodite at birth (or, as it has been more crudely put, “born a male “).
This has never been proven, mind you, but most folks seem satisfied with the argument that it was passed along by a friend of a friend who knows a doctor who was told about it in medical school, or some variation thereof. If that doesn’t convince, they’ll probably point out that Curtis adopted her two children instead of conceiving. Oh, and she has a unisex first name. None of which, of course, proves anything.
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I would doubt the rumors from day one but it makes an interesting story to tell in a bar. Who doesn’t like such funny interesting stories to liven up a gathering. A friend of a friend told me that Jamie is actually a male who later went under the knife to become a women. HAHA.
See how troublesome Jamie looks as if she doesn’t like what is it being said about her in the internet forums.
I don’t know if Jamie has a problem, unless she has openly spoken about it…
In anycase, HERMAPRHODITE is WRONG and IRRELEVANT.
If, and only if, there is a problem, this is NOT HERMAPHRODISM, which is defined as the presence of both male and female reproductive organs in the same person… In addition, the HERMAPHRODITE, does NOT need a partner for reproduction. It can reproduce by itself, because it has BOTH types of reproductive organs.
Again, to get things straight. What may have happened here is the following:
The person was born as a MALE (chromosomes XY), but had what is known as “Androgen insensitivity Syndrome”, also known as “testicular feminization” and got treatment for that. In plain English?
1. The person’s cells are MALE (have an Y chromosome, which defines ‘male’)
2. The person was thus born with TESTICLES.
3. However, the person had “Androgen insensitivity Syndrome”, also known as “testicular feminization”.
This means, that the testicles were INSENSITIVE (i.e. cannot respond to MALE hormones, ie. ANDROGENS, eg. testosterone). That’s why it’s called “Androgen Insensitivity”. In other words, the person was born male, with male hormones, but these could not act on their targets, because their targets were insensitive to their actions… Hence, despite being a male and having all those male hormones, the person could not develop male characteristics.
4. The treatment of this rare, but well known medical condition is well known also. The testicles CANNOT be made sensitive to hormones. There is no way! Hence, the aim is to transform the person who is male, into female.
I.e. Castration (removal of testicles – because they may give cancer if they stay in there too long) + Female hormonal replacement therapy.
5. So what’s the outcome?
The outcome is: The person is STILL male on the inside, but LOOKS female on the outside. Hermaphrodism is irrelevant here.
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It doesn’t mean she was born a male.A hermorphidite is both male and female having both male and female genitalia.So she would have an option to choose.She is half way there either way.
It doesn’t mean she was born a male.A hermaphrodite is both male and female having both male and female genitalia.So she would have an option to choose.She is half way there either way.
spelling correction
I don’t believe this rumor, but a hermaphrodite can’t reproduce on his/her own. A hermaphrodite is born many different ways but most common is an improper splitting of the chromosomes resulting in a baby born XXY not XY as stated in this article. This means that the individual does NOT have complete versions of either sex organs and the true sex of the child is not known until puberty when either testosterone or estrogen take over and well, you understand the rest. Clearly Jamie was born a girl… she looked like a girl, and when puberty hit… she grew like a girl so there you have it… normal women have infertility problems which is probably what happened with her. I love Mrs. Curtis and I wish her the best!
I wanted to ad to everyone’s comments and just let you guys know that I think the correct term, if Jamie Lee Curtis were to to have any condition at all, would be “Genetic Mosaicism”. So if she were to be affected by this condition she would be a genetic mosaic.
If parents have a child that is presented with this condition, they are given options at birth. And, although the parent may make the wrong decision, the parents often are advised to make the decision at the time of birth. What happens later in the child’s life they are to hope that modern medicine can keep their decision a secret and keep their child looking normal.
I would also like to correct this article about androgen resistance syndrome. Which was obviously written by someone with only high school knowledge in biology, no knowledge in human development, and some terrible sources.
Androgen resistance syndrome clearly is a female who has undescended testicles, which means testicles are trapped in the abdomen. To start every human once going through development starts out as a women with ovaries. Hormones turn ovaries into testicles in the development process when the cells are present with the XY chromosomes making the human a male. In most cases of Androgen resistance syndrome there are degrees of undervirilization that cause this to happen.
Undervirilization is under development of sex differences pertaining to female and male characteristics and hormones. In androgen resistance syndrome a the mutation occurring is the gene encoding the androgen receptor. Therefore a person with complete Androgen resistance syndrome would have complete female characteristics (possible even perfect), but would have the undescended testicles instead of ovaries in the abdomen.
Therefore the only surgery needed would be to remove the testicles. The Rumor is that Jamie Lee Curtis was born a man, meaning she must have had both male and female parts, because she looks very female like to me. This condition would have been Genetic Mosaicism. I hope this has helped everyone understand the differences, including the person who wrote this article.
I wanted to include that in most Genetic Mosaicism cases the parents decide on the keeping the male parts. The reason being the surgery is less invasive and the hormone therapy for males is easier that the hormone therapy for females. And to be honest it is a lot easier to hide the aftermath of the surgery done when the child was an infant. Therefore it is even harder to believe that Jamie Lee Curtis had this condition either. Unless her parents really had some work cut out for them.
hermaphrodites cannot reproduce by themselves. they are sterile.
ah, more ignorant slobs making comments, when will you people get jobs?
A note to Dr Lane. Everyone does not start out as a woman. They start out as either male or female based on the whether they are xx or xy. As the fetus develops assuming there are no problems with genetic codes or other conditions the reproductive organs develop into the respective organs for their sex. Ie testes for xy and ovaries for xx. If there is a genetic disorder present the tissues may or may not develop into the correct organs. IE a male who lacking the short arm of the Y will not have testes cause this is where the coding is for the testes. In other cases where the tissues do not respond to the hormones they will not develop the corresponding male organs and instead will default to female types, but to repeat people do not start out as as women they start out as having tissue which will develop into the right organs for their genetic coding but if a defect is present they may or may not develop the reproductive organs that their genetic code says they should have.
Dan, and Dr Lane.
We don’t all start out with ovaries, we all start out with non-differentiated gonads (I will come back to this in a sec). Additionally we all have mullerian ducts (female system) and wolffian ducts (male system).
But, Dan, you can be XX male, or XY female. The part of ‘Y’ that makes you male is called SRY (sex-determining region of y). During meiosis, X and Y rarely form cross-overs, but it is possible. If SRY gets swapped with a section of X, the Y which has lost SRY (Y’, if you like), to produce apparently normal females (complete with ovaries, female external genetalia, and blissful ignorance of their genome). The X possessing SRY (X’) will produce normal, blissfully ignorant, men (ability to open jars and loose remote controls fully intact).
That aside, once an individual inherits SRY (through normal Y, or X’), TDF (testis determining factor) is produced, which turns those little indifferent gonads into testes. Without TDF, they’ll go on their merry way to become ovaries.
HOWEVER, they were not ‘always’ ovaries. Ovaries develop from the cortex of the gonad, whereas testes would develop from the medulla (the non used segment degenerates).
Once the testes have developed, they begin secreting testosterone, which causes development of the wolffian. MIS (mullerian inhibitory substance) is also secreted (forgive me I can’t remember from where…testes? wolffian ducts?) which degenerates the lady system (mullerian).
If no testes, the wolffian degenerates without testosterone and the mullerian thrives (there’s some suggestion that a gene on the X is responsible for degeneration of wolffian and thriving of mullerian, which is why turner’s [45,X] never develop full ovaries.
then there’s the bla bla about the 5-alpha-reductase hormone which translates testosterone into DHT, which the target cells in the genitalia respond to. No DHT, no male external genetalia. No testosterone, no DHT.
If 5-alpha-reductase isn’t working, but testosterone is, those males will not exhibit male genitalia until they hit puberty and testosterone affects the growth of genitalia. Ie these men are apparently female until they hit puberty.
anyway I’m rambling now.
Hermaphrodites rarely have testicles and cannot self reproduce. Initialy (at conception) you are both male and female.
“This means, that the test1cles were INSENSITIVE (i.e. cannot respond to MALE hormones, ie. ANDROGENS, eg. testosterone). That’s why it’s called “Androgen Insensitivity”. In other words, the person was born male, with male hormones, but these could not act on their targets, because their targets were insensitive to their actions… Hence, despite being a male and having all those male hormones, the person could not develop male characteristics.”
You are incorrect that the testicles are insensitive, but right later when you said that the targets were insensitive. This is a condition where, in the complete case, the XY individual lacks androgen receptors. The testes are normal it’s the targets that don’t work normally.
“4. The treatment of this rare, but well known medical condition is well known also. The testicles CANNOT be made sensitive to hormones. There is no way! Hence, the aim is to transform the person who is male, into female.”
Again, this is not about testicular senstivity, but the target tissues.
“5. So what’s the outcome?
The outcome is: The person is STILL male on the inside, but LOOKS female on the outside. Hermaphrodism is irrelevant here.”
The only part that is ‘male’ is the presence of a Y chromosome and testes, everything else is female, except they do not have a uterus and fallopian tubes.
One would be hard pressed to find any evidence that these women are not genetic women. There is nothing intersexual about them, except their chromosomes.
Might the Virgin Mary have been a ‘mophrey’?
Intersexuals cannot concieve, let alone impregnate themselves. Did Jamie adopt?
she does look alot like a man in her old age.
Who cares? She’s a beautiful PERSON from the inside out. I’d date her if she were a man.
I love it. I’ve had this rant with people numerous times.
Here’s how I understand it in brief:
Y = (in most cases) testes
Testes = (in most cases) testosterone
Testosterone = (in most cases) male external genitalia.
Androgen Insensitivity -
Y = TESTES = TESTOSTERONE … but the target cells sensitive to testosterone are ..well..insensitive.
Andro insensitives have male gonads (testes) but female external genitalia. How can this be?! Well, labia are hologous to the scrotum, and in some cases where the individual is DHT (derivative of testosterone) deficient(see: guevedoces)the labia actually fuse to become a scrotum, which the testes later pop into..but I digress. In andro insensitive cases the testes are present, but un-descended (ie still inside the abdomenen, not huddled in the scrote).
The reason for the female external genetalia is not because of androgen insensitivity in the testes (they’re the producers), but in the individual. That is, the non-specific genetalia can’t become male because it doesn’t respond to testosterone. The default? Female.
That’s right fellas, at one stage in your development, you could have gone either way.
As far as Jamie Lee is concerned, who knows. Lady GaGa on the other hand…
I think Jamie Lee Curtis is a down-to-earth celebrity that you could walk up to and have a normal conversation with. She’s classy, sassy and fun. She’s never been stuck up even though she’s the daughter of Hollywoood Royalty.
There are a lot of celebrities that are assholes and I’d love to humiliate them if I had the chance. I would NEVER want to do that to her. If that rumur is true, she’s had to live with a lot of private pain (psychologically) that came as a result of the throw of genetic dice she had nothing to do with.
I don’t know anything about this… but does Diet Dr. Pepper does taste just like regular Dr. Pepper.