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Expert Opinion. After the first flush of excitement wore off, papers turned to doctors for expert opinion on the case. They pooh-poohed the story as anything new, pointing out that sex transformation is far from a medical rarity, that there are similar cases in hospitals all over the U.S. right now. Nevertheless, papers ran semi-learned stories sprinkled with such terms as hermaphrodite and pseudohermaphrodite (see MEDICINE), and reporters manfully tried to translate the medicalese into journalese. Said the New York World-Telegram and Sun: "Once the internal situation is known, plastic surgery can be used to build up or play down the [external] characteristics that correspond or do not correspond respectively with the organs found inside."
By week's end, the Jorgensen family, which had seemed reluctant to be pushed into the spotlight, was fast learning the sweet uses of publicity. Christine's parents announced that they would sell Christine's life story for $30,000 "in order to help others" who need similar treatment. On her part, Christine, who had protested the blizzard of Page One publicity, also made a discovery. She had been "shooting a little 16-mm. color travel film on Denmark . . . not a bad little movie." She had never really thought about it before, but now, Christine said, widening her grey-blue eyes, she was afraid that all the publicity in the newspapers might spoil her plans to "take it back to the States and perhaps tour the country, showing it in schools, small towns and places like that, and giving lectures."