IntersexualityWhat Is Intersex?

Contemporary Medical ModelEthical and Activist CritiquesPost-Consensus Statement

IntersexualityWhat Is Intersex?

Contemporary Medical ModelEthical and Activist CritiquesPost-Consensus Statement

KEY CONCEPTS• What Is Intersex

• Reproductive or sexual anatomy different from typically male or female• Most common diagnoses

• Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia – mostly a problem for girls• Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome – a problem for boys• Klinefelter Syndrome (XXY chromosomes) – a problem for boys

• Considered both a medical and social emergency

• Contemporary Medical Model• Optimal gender of rearing (Money et al, 1955)• Small window of gender malleability (18 mo)• The David Reimer “John/Joan” case• Medical Teams: Endocrinologist, Urologist, and

Psychologist

• Ethical and Activist Critiques• Sexist treatment model – mainly about female sexual functioning• Heteronormative model – mainly about heterosexual sexual functioning• Medically unnecessary interventions

• Surgery usually presented as the only option• No cases to answer “what if surgery isn’t done” questions• Surgery is not “irreversible”

• “Informed” consent• Deception and partial truth-telling• M.C. vs. Aaronson

• Post-Consensus Statement• No longer referred to as “hermaphrodites”• Considered “disorders of sex development” (DSD)

KEY CONCEPTS