Richard Lorenc never knew his biological mother, and began searching for her at age 33. The Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services provided him with a name six weeks later: Lorenc's mother is 62-year-old Vivian Wheeler.
Wheeler is in the Guinness Book of World Records as the woman with the longest beard -11 inches! Lorenc was reunited with his mother, and learned the story of how they were separated all those years ago. Wheeler is considering leaving her home of Bakersfield, California to live closer to her son in Kansas. Link
It also informed him that both his mother and his maternal grandmother had hypertrichosis, known as werewolf syndrome. Each had facial hair, even as children. The letter further stated that his mother was born a hermaphrodite, with both male and female reproductive organs.
Wheeler's facial fuzz had appeared at birth with an inch and a half of light hair covering her cheeks and chin. She says her mother wanted a daughter, and doctors were instructed to remove the male parts.
Wheeler claimed her father was humiliated by his bearded little girl, but it didn't prevent him from capitalizing on her condition. She began working in sideshows at an early age, earning money to send home to her family.
Wheeler is in the Guinness Book of World Records as the woman with the longest beard -11 inches! Lorenc was reunited with his mother, and learned the story of how they were separated all those years ago. Wheeler is considering leaving her home of Bakersfield, California to live closer to her son in Kansas. Link
@Ted: there are a lot of people with an intersex condition that have either functioning ovaries or testes. many intersex conditions are external, with the internal bits functioning along what most people consider "normal", either male or female. every person is unique though, and sterility is quite common (although not a given.) there has never really been a definite case of "hermaphrodism" in humans, where the person has fully functioning sex organs of both male and female. it's usually somewhere in between.
as an aside, i think most people would probably be really surprised at just how common intersex conditions are. the whole "XX" and "XY" chromosome thing is isn't very accurate, since there is a WHOLE lot of in-betweens!