TOWIE’s Gemma Collins has opened up about terminating her pregnancy.
The 43-year-old revealed she was advised to make this decision after learning her unborn baby was intersex.
During an interview on the new Everything I Know About Me podcast, the former reality star broke down in tears.
“Hermaphrodite,” the term used by Gemma, is no longer used because it is deemed misleading and stigmatising.
Instead, intersex is the correct medical definition for an organism that produces both male and female reproductive organs.
The condition of being “Intersex” is much more common than people may think as it affects one in every 2,000 births in the UK.
Although scientists are sceptical about these figures and some believe they may be much higher, however, there are an estimated 30,000 known intersex people in the UK.
She said on the latest episode of the podcast: “They said to me ‘something’s not right’.”
Gemma later added: “They said to me ‘oh your baby could be, from looking at it, [intersex]’.
“You can imagine I had no idea what the word was. I had to look it up. I’d never been taught about [being intersex]. So that was a real shock.”
Gemma went on to say that there were concerns for the baby at the time, and explained: “And then they advised me you need to have a termination.”
Gemma, who said that the pregnancy came at an already challenging time in her life, said that it was “very sad” but was “just not meant to be”.
The TOWIE star had her first miscarriage in 2012 and says she did not realise she was pregnant until she lost her baby at home.
She had a second and third miscarriage in 2020. Gemma has previously spoken about struggles with fertility caused by polycystic ovary syndrome battle.
Gemma reportedly got tearful reflecting on one loss, saying: “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.”
