To be born as a hermaphrodite is a rare side effect of being conceived by
IVF, suggest geneticists in Scotland.
David Bonthron of the Western General Hospital in Edinburgh and his
colleagues examined a boy born with an ovary and a fallopian tube in place of
his left testicle. Some of the boy’s cells are male, with one X and one Y
chromosome, while others have the female XX pattern
(The New England Journal of Medicine, vol 338, p 166).
The boy’s mother had IVF treatment. Bonthron believes two embryos transferred
into her uterus—one male and one female—fused and became a single
fetus.
