![]() Genetic testing, it says, could be used to resolve any ambiguity about external appearance. Credit: Lucy Nicholson/ReutersĪccording to a draft memo leaked to The New York Times, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) proposes to establish a legal definition of whether someone is male or female based solely and immutably on the genitals they are born with. Surgically constructed genitals are extremely difficult if not impossible to “undo,” and children altered at birth or in infancy are largely stuck with what doctors give them.Science does not support the Trump administration’s proposed move to narrow the definition of gender. That is a crucial reason why medically unnecessary surgeries should not be done without the patient’s consent the child with an intersex condition may later want genitals (either the ones they were born with or surgically constructed anatomy) different than what the doctors would have chosen. Any child-intersex or not-may decide later in life that she or he was given the wrong gender assignment but children with certain intersex conditions have significantly higher rates of gender transition than the general population, with or without treatment. In cases of intersex, doctors and parents need to recognize, however, that gender assignment of infants with intersex conditions as boy or girl, as with assignment of any infant, is preliminary. Why shouldn’t children with intersex be raised in a “third gender”? We advocate assigning a boy or girl gender because intersex is not, and will never be, a discrete biological category any more than male or female is, and because assigning an “intersex” gender would unnecessarily traumatize the child. We know, for example, that the vast majority of children with complete androgen insensitivity syndrome grow up to feel female, and that many children with cloacal exstrophy and XY chromosomes will grow up to feel male. The child is assigned a gender as boy or girl after tests (hormonal, genetic, radiological) have been done and the parents have consulted with the doctors on which gender the child is more likely to feel as she or he grows up. You don’t need a surgeon for that.īut how do you pick a child’s gender if she or he is intersex? When you assign a child a gender as boy or girl, what you’re doing is labeling them a boy or girl. ![]() # How can you assign a gender (boy or girl) without surgery? What's the history behind the intersex rights movement?. ![]() ![]() Who was David Reimer (also, sadly, known as John/Joan)?.What do intersex and the same-sex marriage debate have to do with each other?.Are there medical risks associated with intersex conditions?.Does ISNA advocate doing nothing when a child is born with intersex?.What evidence is there that you can grow up psychologically healthy with intersex genitals (without normalizing surgeries)?.How can you assign a gender (boy or girl) without surgery?.Why Doesn't ISNA Want to Eradicate Gender?.What's the difference between being transgender or transsexual and having an intersex condition?.What is the current policy of the American Academy of Pediatrics on surgery?.Is intersex the same as ambiguous genitalia?.Does having a Y chromosome make someone a man?. ![]() Is a person who is intersex a hermaphrodite?.How come many people have never heard of intersex?.Questions about Intersex Society of North America.What do doctors do now when they encounter a patient with intersex?.What's wrong with the way intersex has traditionally been treated?.Does ISNA think children with intersex should be raised without a gender, or in a third gender?.What does ISNA recommend for children with intersex?. ![]()
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