Ask Ms. Jessica Issue 17 – Self-cest and pregnancy (Patreon)

(The content for Ask Ms. Jessica comes from real questions from real people sent to AskMsJessica@gmail.com)

Hello Ms Jessica,

I have been keeping up with your column and had a question I'd like your scientific input on. 

Ok, so if we have a female mutant with both a functional penis and vagina (I mention they're functional due to an earlier question regarding aesthetic vaginas), is it possible for her to impregnate herself, and if so is there any affect on the baby (such as will it be a mutant as well)?

Please forgive me if this question is too NSFW and know this is just a hypothetical scenario.

Please email me back.

Thank you.

It’s OK. This question is not too risqué at all. I’ve gotten numerous questions about how mutants urinate and defecate. Sometimes science just goes into areas that are normally considered taboo in causal discussion.

So the short answer is no. Most of the time a mutant with both a functional penis and vagina cannot impregnate herself. Creating a viable fetus requires more than just a viable sperm and egg. They both have to have a certain degree of genetic diversity to successfully combine and become an embryo.

This is one reason why it’s difficult to have babies out of incest. Usually the sex cells are too genetically similar to carry a baby to term. For that matter, intersex people have existed long before mutation as we know it. They sometimes have two sets of genetalia and they too cannot impregnate themselves for the same reason. 

However, there have been examples of intersex people and, for that matter, mutants that have impregnated themselves. Have you heard of a human chimera? No, they aren’t the mythical beast with a lion, goat, and serpent head. They are any human being made up of cells from two or more individuals. That is to say, they have two different sets of DNA. Some cells carry one set and some carry another.

Chimeric humans also existed well before mutation as we know it, and chimeric intersex people can, in fact, impregnate themselves. If they produce sperm with one set of chromosomes and eggs with another set of chromosomes, then they can possibly create a viable embryo and carry it to term. This is extremely rare though.

The same goes for mutations. Somehow, the mutant would have to produce sperm and egg with a vastly different set of chromosomes. However, this too is rare. Fusions and conjoinments are the most likely culprits, but they tend to occur due to similarities in genome to begin with. This would, effectively, make it less likely that any two fused individuals, even if they did produce completely different sex cells, could carry a baby to term, specifically because of that similarity.

But science doesn’t deal in absolutes. I am certain there are mutants out there that can produce sperm and eggs significantly different from each other and thus self-impregnate. After all, we have mutants that can secrete all sorts of substances. The idea of creating a sex cell that carries a chromosomal load that is not a direct copy of your own is not that strange. It’s just, as I said before, rare.

In short, if you have two sets of genetalia, go nuts! For the most part, you are safe even if you fool around. 

Stay curious!

Dr. Jessica Park

AskMsJessica@gmail.com