If you are a chimera and merged with your DZ twin and he or she was the same sex as you, then in the absence of any skin or eye colour anomalies, there would be little proof, unless you happened to take a DNA test. However, if you merged with your DZ twin and he or she was the opposite sex to you, chimerism may be more easily identified. Chimeras that have both male and female cells are called “hermaphodite.”
This rather exotic term is derived from Greek mythology. Hermaphroditus was a son of Hermes and Aphrodite. The nymph Salmacis fell in love with him and prayed to be forever united with him. They became joined in a single body that retained characteristics of both sexes.
The general understanding of a hermaphrodite is a person who is genetically both male and female, and has the sexual organs of both sexes. In fact, experts say that hermaphroditism is a spectrum, from normal fertile males with all sexual equipment present and intact, to normal, fertile females, also with all sexual organs present and intact. But in the midst of this spectrum there are people with the sexual characteristics of the opposite sex. They are described as “inter-sex” if their bodies express both sexes, such as having both sets of genitalia, and “transsexual” if they begin life as one sex but have an overwhelming desire to change to the opposite sex.
In the medical literature there is so much emphasis on people with sexual ambiguity or other gonadal problems, that the “ normal” male/female chimeras remain unnoticed, simply because they look and act normal.
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