Gemma Collins' revelation she 'terminated pregnancy after she discovered baby ... trends now

Only Way Is Essex star Gemma Collins sparked fierce debate today after revealing she terminated her pregnancy because her baby was intersex and 'not going to be right'.

Speaking during a candid interview on the Everything I Know About Me podcast, the former TOWIE star broke down in tears claiming doctors advised her to have the abortion in her 20s because her baby was a 'hermaphrodite'.

Hermaphrodite is considered an outdated and offensive term for people intersex. In modern society, the term 'people with differences in sex development' (DSD) is used.

The umbrella term covers 40-plus rare conditions which develop in the womb and give people unusually arranged or developed genitals.

Sometimes the internal anatomy is rearranged. For example, a boy may be born with a penis but have internal, rather than regular external, testicles.

The vast majority of intersex people live perfectly normal and healthy lives.

Gemma Collins has revealed she was advised to terminate a pregnancy after learning her unborn baby was a 'hermaphrodite' - [the correct term is intersex]

Listen to our shocking interview with Gemma Collins on our podcast, Everything I Know About Me:

Gemma told the podcast: 'You can imagine I didn't know what the word was. I had to look it up. I'd never been taught about hermaphrodites.

'I didn't know what they were I didn't know they existed. So that was a real shock.'

She added: 'Then they advised me you need to have a termination because this baby is not going to be right.

'In a single instant, I learned that I'd been carrying a baby and lost it, meaning that once again I found my longstanding dreams of motherhood shattered into pieces.'

Intersex adults, as well social media users, claimed they were dismayed by Gemma's experience.

What is an intersex baby?

Intersex is an umbrella term for multiple of conditions that mean a person's sexual anatomy is different than most other people's.

Also called 'differences in sex development' (DSD) these are rare conditions that develop in the womb.

They are normally spotted at birth but can occasionally only come to light later in life during puberty.

They involve a combination of genes, hormones and the layout and appearance of reproductive anatomy like the genitals.

For example, a girl might be born with a long clitoris but a closed vagina due to a hormonal condition.

In other cases, a boy may be born with a penis but have a womb and internal, rather regular external, testicles.

Some of these traits are linked to having extra chromosome like Klinefelter syndrome.

There is some evidence that some DSDs can run in families but in most cases, there is no obvious cause.

Intersex people have sometimes been called hermaphrodites, in reference to a half-man half-woman mythical figure from Greek mythology called Hermaphroditus.

Intersex charities say the term should be avoided as it misleading, scientifically inaccurate for the variety of conditions covered by DSDs and stigmatising.

People with DSDs have sometimes been subjected to shocking medical treatment.

So-called 'corrective surgeries' were sometimes used to 'fix' babies' genitalia to better match one sex.

For example, male babies born without a penis, a DSD called aphallia, have sometimes been subjected to 'feminisation surgery' to create an artificial vagina.

This has resulted, historically, in people being raised as girls only to grow facial hair and a deeper voice when their male puberty starts.

DSD charities have also criticised this 'corrective 'approach as it usually driven by societal expectations rather than medical benefit for the patient.

People with very specific DSDs do need medical care however, as there can be knock-on effects to other aspects of their health.

However, the vast majority do not need any medical attention.

How common DSDs are vary by type, with more than 40 individual conditions covered by the term.

A rough estimate is that 1.7 per cent of the population, about one in 50 people are born with a type of DSD.

That's equivalent to about 114,000 people in the UK.

Alyssa Ball, 28, from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, told MailOnline that it was unfair not to give an intersex baby a 'fighting chance in the world'.

She was born with testicles inside of her body instead of ovaries. Her parents found out she was intersex at just three weeks old.

Speaking to this website about Gemma's story she said: 'I think it's really unfair to not be able to give an intersex baby a fighting chance in the world.

'They will be able to be a happy, healthy adult, given the right resources, community, support and the right health care providers.'

Alyssa, a yoga teacher, even argued that wanting to terminate a pregnancy on the basis that the child was intersex no different than having an abortion based on a child's hair colour.

'Hopefully we wouldn't terminate a pregnancy just because we wanted a baby that was born with brown hair or blonde hair or whatever external thing,' she said.

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