A medical paper published recently in Australia recommends prenatal screening for congenital adrenal hyperplasia female fetuses. The paper recommends treating them prenatally with dexamethasone to prevent "behavioral masculization" including "same sex attraction and tom boy type behaviors" (there is a much higher statistical rate of both in CAH girls).
I find this absolutely disgusting, it is blatantly homophobic and transphobic. So your little girl may not be what you were expecting, so what? No parent-to-be knows what their child will be like, but they adapt and love them anyways. Parents should love and accept their children not drug out who they are, or will be. This non-consensual medical intervention is little better then genital mutilation, it is the strict enforcement of gender stereotypes at the expense of the humanity, individuality and power of choice of the intersexed individual. It also contributes to the view of intersex as a pathology.
I find the thought of prenatal testing for intersex conditions very disturbing. More prenatal intervention could lead to the abortions intersex fetuses for eugenics purposes. Most parents to be want to know the sex of their baby, but when knowing could lead them to medicate or harm the baby, perhaps it is best left a surprise.
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Review of "Fool for Love" by Lisa Lees
I just finished the book Fool for Love by Lisa Lees (available at Amazon, or at lulu.com, a self publishing site). The writing style was a rather choppy, and referenced a lot of things that most intersexuals already know, however I enjoyed reading it and would highly recommend it. Its always nice to see yourself in print, which doesn't happen very often for certain minorities.
Fool for Love is a love story between two high school students, an intersex girl, Jamie, and a genderqueer butch lesbian, Carys. What the book covered very well is the emotional complexities of relationships with intersexuals. Relationships are difficult enough for "normal" people; but for intersexuals, they are an emotional minefield.
Look on any intersex forum and you will see that intersex people have a lot of apprehension and angst about relationships. Their genitals have been a source of great emotional anguish, and sharing them with another is sometimes too painful.
This is why I liked Fool for Love, it showed that in spite of all these fears, love can prevail and intersexuals can have a happily ever after.
Fool for Love is a love story between two high school students, an intersex girl, Jamie, and a genderqueer butch lesbian, Carys. What the book covered very well is the emotional complexities of relationships with intersexuals. Relationships are difficult enough for "normal" people; but for intersexuals, they are an emotional minefield.
Look on any intersex forum and you will see that intersex people have a lot of apprehension and angst about relationships. Their genitals have been a source of great emotional anguish, and sharing them with another is sometimes too painful.
This is why I liked Fool for Love, it showed that in spite of all these fears, love can prevail and intersexuals can have a happily ever after.
Monday, June 28, 2010
the amusing risks of ultrasounds
Hello readers, remember a few posts ago when I wrote about using humor at an ultrasound to ease the tensions? Well, I got the results back from the ultrasound and wouldn't you know it, it said I had ovaries, even though my gonads had been removed as a small child. The report went so far as to say my reproductive system was "unremarkable". To say I was shocked by this would be an understatement. There were only four explanations I could think of:
1. The surgeons removed the wrong thing, and I still had my gonads
2. The ultrasound had been misread
3. Like some of my hermaphrodite brethren, the earthworms and sponges, I had the ability to regenerate lost body parts
4. There was a mix up and I was given someone else's ultrasound result (I hoped this was not the case because some poor "normal" lady would be in for an even worse shock then me if she got my ultrasound)
As it turns out, it was number 2. In a case of confirmation bias, the ultrasound tech expected to see ovaries, and thus mislabeled loops of my colon as ovaries. The moral of this story is when things seem weird, ask questions of your doctors. We deserve to know the truth
1. The surgeons removed the wrong thing, and I still had my gonads
2. The ultrasound had been misread
3. Like some of my hermaphrodite brethren, the earthworms and sponges, I had the ability to regenerate lost body parts
4. There was a mix up and I was given someone else's ultrasound result (I hoped this was not the case because some poor "normal" lady would be in for an even worse shock then me if she got my ultrasound)
As it turns out, it was number 2. In a case of confirmation bias, the ultrasound tech expected to see ovaries, and thus mislabeled loops of my colon as ovaries. The moral of this story is when things seem weird, ask questions of your doctors. We deserve to know the truth
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
cultural compromise and genital integrity
a hot button issue for intersex activists lately has been the recent change in the protocol of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). This change is the AAP's recommendation that the US permit doctors to "nick" the genitals of their female patients as a compromise for their African patients seeking their ritual genital cutting. They have said this is justified on three grounds.
1. nicking is very minor, the equivalent to a pin prick or an ear piercing.
2. it demonstrates a cultural sensitivity for immigrant populations
3. it is a compromise that could prevent the parents from preforming more extreme genital cutting.
This is unusual since AAP's previous statement on the subject states (rightly so) that female genital cutting is a form of gender based violence. Even if this nicking sound harmless, it is important to not quibble over severity, if something is wrong, then milder forms of it are still wrong. Many anti-FGM activists fear, rightly so, that this recommendation opens up shades of gray which will muddle and ultimately set back their movement.
FGM is very similar to the way intersex people are treated in America, our genitals are cut up to satisfy a sociocultural requirement. The similar lack of respect for bodily integrity and sexual autonomy due to culture is striking Many intersex activists petitioned congress to add intersex to the Federal Prohibition of Female Genital Mutilation Act, citing these similarities. Obviously Congress was not persuaded. I think it is very important to understand understand other cultures, but it is also important to realize that cultures are not static, they change all the time. There are many African activists working to stop female genital mutlation in their culture. I think the American Academy of Pediatrics did these activists a great disservice by stabbing them in the back with this recommendation. In any case, no child should be put in harms way just because of cultural norms, that is deeply unethical, and suggests a norm that needs to be changed.
1. nicking is very minor, the equivalent to a pin prick or an ear piercing.
2. it demonstrates a cultural sensitivity for immigrant populations
3. it is a compromise that could prevent the parents from preforming more extreme genital cutting.
This is unusual since AAP's previous statement on the subject states (rightly so) that female genital cutting is a form of gender based violence. Even if this nicking sound harmless, it is important to not quibble over severity, if something is wrong, then milder forms of it are still wrong. Many anti-FGM activists fear, rightly so, that this recommendation opens up shades of gray which will muddle and ultimately set back their movement.
FGM is very similar to the way intersex people are treated in America, our genitals are cut up to satisfy a sociocultural requirement. The similar lack of respect for bodily integrity and sexual autonomy due to culture is striking Many intersex activists petitioned congress to add intersex to the Federal Prohibition of Female Genital Mutilation Act, citing these similarities. Obviously Congress was not persuaded. I think it is very important to understand understand other cultures, but it is also important to realize that cultures are not static, they change all the time. There are many African activists working to stop female genital mutlation in their culture. I think the American Academy of Pediatrics did these activists a great disservice by stabbing them in the back with this recommendation. In any case, no child should be put in harms way just because of cultural norms, that is deeply unethical, and suggests a norm that needs to be changed.
Saturday, June 19, 2010
American Female Genital Mutilation
If you are standing (at the computer, that would be weird) you should sit down, the news I have to report is shocking.
Dr. Dix Poppas, a pediatric urologist at Cornell University has been surgically shortening the clitoris's of girls who have been deemed to be too big and too sensitive (God forbid a woman actually enjoy sex). Then at follow up examinations he uses a vibrator to test how much sensitivity is lost. I for one am outraged by this. The mutilation and molestation of children is sick. No other pediatric urologist preforms this procedure. What kind of parents would allow this to happen to their little girl? There is nothing wrong with these girls, it is a completely subjective, aesthetic judgment (I shudder to think what these parents would do with an intersex child).
The fact that Dr. Poppas does these vibrator follow-ups shows he is aware of the risks. In spite of this he goes forward with the surgery, violating his Hippocratic oath and demonstrating a disturbing lack of respect for his patients humanity. Look up any intersex discussion board to realize how psychologically devastating genital surgeries and especially the repeated examinations and poking and prodding are on children. These posters are adults who are still not over it. Emotionally they are very much like victims of child sexual abuse.
Even if, as he claims, that he is proving that the sensitivity loss is minimal, it is still wrong. Even if genital surgeries were perfect (they never are, the results are often quite terrible) I would say that it is horribly unethical. Whatever happened to learning to accept yourself, this turning to plastic surgery to solve our insecurities is deeply problematic. It is important to feel at home in your own skin, and when you are implicitly told that you are so unacceptable that we have to operate, it is very difficult to learn that self acceptance.
Dr. Dix Poppas, a pediatric urologist at Cornell University has been surgically shortening the clitoris's of girls who have been deemed to be too big and too sensitive (God forbid a woman actually enjoy sex). Then at follow up examinations he uses a vibrator to test how much sensitivity is lost. I for one am outraged by this. The mutilation and molestation of children is sick. No other pediatric urologist preforms this procedure. What kind of parents would allow this to happen to their little girl? There is nothing wrong with these girls, it is a completely subjective, aesthetic judgment (I shudder to think what these parents would do with an intersex child).
The fact that Dr. Poppas does these vibrator follow-ups shows he is aware of the risks. In spite of this he goes forward with the surgery, violating his Hippocratic oath and demonstrating a disturbing lack of respect for his patients humanity. Look up any intersex discussion board to realize how psychologically devastating genital surgeries and especially the repeated examinations and poking and prodding are on children. These posters are adults who are still not over it. Emotionally they are very much like victims of child sexual abuse.
Even if, as he claims, that he is proving that the sensitivity loss is minimal, it is still wrong. Even if genital surgeries were perfect (they never are, the results are often quite terrible) I would say that it is horribly unethical. Whatever happened to learning to accept yourself, this turning to plastic surgery to solve our insecurities is deeply problematic. It is important to feel at home in your own skin, and when you are implicitly told that you are so unacceptable that we have to operate, it is very difficult to learn that self acceptance.
Monday, June 14, 2010
the importance of humor
Hello all, I'm sorry I haven't done an entry in a while, but I am running out of topics and don't want to become repetitive. Today I'm sending a piece of advice to my fellow intersexuals, or really anyone in an awkward position, that advise is to use humor.
My personal situation where humor was useful was in the doctors office (as these stories often are). I was in for a sonogram to get a better look at my uterus (a small, misshapen organ referred to by doctors as a "shadow uterus" which is in and of itself a funny term). The technician who was doing it did not know that I was intersexed (and I didn't feel like enlightening a total stranger). All she knew was that doctors orders prohibited her from using the vaginal probe. In any case I was feeling very awkward, so while she was looking at the screen, I asked if it was a boy or a girl when I was obviously not there due to a pregnancy. This broke the ice, she laughed and said it was twins, one of each.
Thus my advise to deal with these situations is to never underestimate the power of a joke, a little humor goes a long ways.
My personal situation where humor was useful was in the doctors office (as these stories often are). I was in for a sonogram to get a better look at my uterus (a small, misshapen organ referred to by doctors as a "shadow uterus" which is in and of itself a funny term). The technician who was doing it did not know that I was intersexed (and I didn't feel like enlightening a total stranger). All she knew was that doctors orders prohibited her from using the vaginal probe. In any case I was feeling very awkward, so while she was looking at the screen, I asked if it was a boy or a girl when I was obviously not there due to a pregnancy. This broke the ice, she laughed and said it was twins, one of each.
Thus my advise to deal with these situations is to never underestimate the power of a joke, a little humor goes a long ways.
Sunday, May 9, 2010
10 Myths that Hurt Intersexuals
This list was recently posted on the blog Intersex Roadshow, it is a list of myths that hurt intersexed people, complied from that authors conversations. I think it is a very insightful list, with issues that should be brought to the public attention, so I decided to post it on my blog:
Myth 1: Intersex people all have intermediate genitalia
Imagine this: you're an intersex person, nervous about dating and finding a partner. You work up your courage to disclose your status to people you're interested in, and after a series of them seeming polite but disinterested in dating, you finally meet a guy who expresses interest. You date for a while, and get to the point where the clothes come off. Your boyfriend gets a good look at you naked, accuses you of "making up that story of being intersex" because your body looks female to him, and breaks off the relationship, leaving you feeling misunderstood and ill-used.
Many people are intersexed in ways that are not visible to their partners. For example, an individual with AIS (androgen insensitivity syndrome) is born with internal testes but genitalia that look typically female. Intersex people born with visibly intermediate genitals are often subject to infant sex assignment surgery, another reason why our bodies may not appear visibly intersex to others.
What disturbs me about incidents in which a partner seems interested in dating an intersex person until the clothes come off is that it generally reveals that the partner was fetishizing the intersex person--only interested in them for their "exotic" body. In the situation described here, the boyfriend wanted to have sex with someone who looked genitally intermediate generally. I've also heard stories from intersex people whose genitals are visibly atypical about how a partner lost interest in them when the clothes came off because they didn't see the kind of "hermaphrodite" genitals they'd dreamt of, with a big penis and a vagina (a configuration almost unheard of in real life, but popular in pornographic fantasy). It's depressing to find out your date wasn't really interested in you, but in playing with some fantasy set of genitalia.
Myth 2: Intersex conditions are always diagnosed in infancy
Here's another unfortunate scenario: a person is having infertility problems, so they visit some doctors. They receive a diagnosis and turn in shock to an online gender forum to post "I was just diagnosed as intersex." Somebody responds, "Stop trolling this blog. You're not really intersex--intersex people all know what they are from childhood. You probably have sick fantasies or think saying you're intersex will give you an excuse to gender transition without controversy." The non-intersex person is accusing the intersex individual of being a non-intersex person exploiting intersex individuals, which is pretty ironic.
As noted above, many intersex conditions aren't obviously visible in external genitalia. That means that people may not find out about their intersex status until quite late in life. While the experiences of late-recognized intersex people are different from those of intersex folks diagnosed in infancy, they are not "less" intersex, and have to deal with physical and psychological ramifications for which they need support.
Myth 3: All infant sex-assignment surgery is aimed at creating "female" genitalia
Imagine this situation: you were born with intermediate genitalia but surgically assigned male at birth. However, you grew up hating your male sex assignment, and so you transitioned to female. Your experience has given you a lot of empathy for people viewed as gendertransgressive, so when you notice that a friend of a Facebook friend identifies as genderqueer, you write her a nice message and offer her friendship. She refuses your offer and writes you a nasty note back about how she knows you are lying about being intersex, since "all intersex children are made into girls." She accuses you of being a stalking, posing, creepy man-in-a-dress. Ironic and sad, isn't it--that a woman who identifies as breaking down the boundaries of sex and gender is policing those boundaries so rabidly and wrongheadedly?
It is true that intersex infants are disproportionately surgically assigned female, based on the appalling medical aphorism, "it's easier to make a hole than a pole." But some intersex infants are surgically assigned male--usually when they have at least one external testis, but sometimes under other conditions. The myth that this "never happens" leaves intersex people assigned male at birth open to constant suspicion and exclusion, increasing the difficulties they have to face.
Myth 4: Intersex people should be genderqueer
This myth comes up again and again in academic, activist and feminist circles: that intersex people, being neither male nor female in physical sex, must be genderqueer and androgynous. We're supposed to be standard-bearers for the fight to subvert artificial dyadic gender categories. Encountering an intersex person with an ordinary and "boring" masculine or feminine gender identity who doesn't look at all androgynous, these activists express puzzlement and disappointment--and in private, speculate that the person must have some minor, mild intersex condition, so they are not "intersex enough" to be insightful.
Intersex people face pressure from doctors and families and society at large to genderconform. Facing the opposite pressure to gendertransgress--subversivism-- is just as unfair. Yes, most intersex people open enough to disclose our sex status agree that it is damaging for our society to insist that everyone must identify as male or female. But we live in a society that understands gender dyadically, and like non-intersex people, we commonly identify as masculine or feminine.
Myth 5: "Real" intersex people are not genderqueer
Frustrated and upset by pressure from gender activists to gendertransgress, as descibed in Myth 4, some intersex people have created a reactionary opposite myth: that "real" intersex people have no interest in subverting dyadic gender understandings of male and female. These genderconservative individuals often don't actually identify as "intersex" but as "people with DSDs (Disorders of Sex Development)." And they go around arguing to institutions that "real" intersex people don't identify as genderqueer--that people who say they are intersex and argue for third gender categories and the like are posers, probably crazed feminist zealots or deceptive trans people.
What makes the myth that intersex people are never genderqueer particularly painful to me is that it is spread by members of our community. To undermine your own intersex siblings and deny their identities is counterproductive, pathetic, and cruel. Many intersex people identify as typically masculine or feminine people, but there are plenty who do not do so, and like all genderqueer people, they face a lot of social bias. We have no duty as intersex people to be genderqueer, but I see a strong moral imperative for us to support people who do have genderqueer identities and manners of selfexpression. There are enough hurtful myths circulating about intersex people already. We don't need to add one of our own to the mix.
Myth 1: Intersex people all have intermediate genitalia
Imagine this: you're an intersex person, nervous about dating and finding a partner. You work up your courage to disclose your status to people you're interested in, and after a series of them seeming polite but disinterested in dating, you finally meet a guy who expresses interest. You date for a while, and get to the point where the clothes come off. Your boyfriend gets a good look at you naked, accuses you of "making up that story of being intersex" because your body looks female to him, and breaks off the relationship, leaving you feeling misunderstood and ill-used.
Many people are intersexed in ways that are not visible to their partners. For example, an individual with AIS (androgen insensitivity syndrome) is born with internal testes but genitalia that look typically female. Intersex people born with visibly intermediate genitals are often subject to infant sex assignment surgery, another reason why our bodies may not appear visibly intersex to others.
What disturbs me about incidents in which a partner seems interested in dating an intersex person until the clothes come off is that it generally reveals that the partner was fetishizing the intersex person--only interested in them for their "exotic" body. In the situation described here, the boyfriend wanted to have sex with someone who looked genitally intermediate generally. I've also heard stories from intersex people whose genitals are visibly atypical about how a partner lost interest in them when the clothes came off because they didn't see the kind of "hermaphrodite" genitals they'd dreamt of, with a big penis and a vagina (a configuration almost unheard of in real life, but popular in pornographic fantasy). It's depressing to find out your date wasn't really interested in you, but in playing with some fantasy set of genitalia.
Myth 2: Intersex conditions are always diagnosed in infancy
Here's another unfortunate scenario: a person is having infertility problems, so they visit some doctors. They receive a diagnosis and turn in shock to an online gender forum to post "I was just diagnosed as intersex." Somebody responds, "Stop trolling this blog. You're not really intersex--intersex people all know what they are from childhood. You probably have sick fantasies or think saying you're intersex will give you an excuse to gender transition without controversy." The non-intersex person is accusing the intersex individual of being a non-intersex person exploiting intersex individuals, which is pretty ironic.
As noted above, many intersex conditions aren't obviously visible in external genitalia. That means that people may not find out about their intersex status until quite late in life. While the experiences of late-recognized intersex people are different from those of intersex folks diagnosed in infancy, they are not "less" intersex, and have to deal with physical and psychological ramifications for which they need support.
Myth 3: All infant sex-assignment surgery is aimed at creating "female" genitalia
Imagine this situation: you were born with intermediate genitalia but surgically assigned male at birth. However, you grew up hating your male sex assignment, and so you transitioned to female. Your experience has given you a lot of empathy for people viewed as gendertransgressive, so when you notice that a friend of a Facebook friend identifies as genderqueer, you write her a nice message and offer her friendship. She refuses your offer and writes you a nasty note back about how she knows you are lying about being intersex, since "all intersex children are made into girls." She accuses you of being a stalking, posing, creepy man-in-a-dress. Ironic and sad, isn't it--that a woman who identifies as breaking down the boundaries of sex and gender is policing those boundaries so rabidly and wrongheadedly?
It is true that intersex infants are disproportionately surgically assigned female, based on the appalling medical aphorism, "it's easier to make a hole than a pole." But some intersex infants are surgically assigned male--usually when they have at least one external testis, but sometimes under other conditions. The myth that this "never happens" leaves intersex people assigned male at birth open to constant suspicion and exclusion, increasing the difficulties they have to face.
Myth 4: Intersex people should be genderqueer
This myth comes up again and again in academic, activist and feminist circles: that intersex people, being neither male nor female in physical sex, must be genderqueer and androgynous. We're supposed to be standard-bearers for the fight to subvert artificial dyadic gender categories. Encountering an intersex person with an ordinary and "boring" masculine or feminine gender identity who doesn't look at all androgynous, these activists express puzzlement and disappointment--and in private, speculate that the person must have some minor, mild intersex condition, so they are not "intersex enough" to be insightful.
Intersex people face pressure from doctors and families and society at large to genderconform. Facing the opposite pressure to gendertransgress--subversivism-- is just as unfair. Yes, most intersex people open enough to disclose our sex status agree that it is damaging for our society to insist that everyone must identify as male or female. But we live in a society that understands gender dyadically, and like non-intersex people, we commonly identify as masculine or feminine.
Myth 5: "Real" intersex people are not genderqueer
Frustrated and upset by pressure from gender activists to gendertransgress, as descibed in Myth 4, some intersex people have created a reactionary opposite myth: that "real" intersex people have no interest in subverting dyadic gender understandings of male and female. These genderconservative individuals often don't actually identify as "intersex" but as "people with DSDs (Disorders of Sex Development)." And they go around arguing to institutions that "real" intersex people don't identify as genderqueer--that people who say they are intersex and argue for third gender categories and the like are posers, probably crazed feminist zealots or deceptive trans people.
What makes the myth that intersex people are never genderqueer particularly painful to me is that it is spread by members of our community. To undermine your own intersex siblings and deny their identities is counterproductive, pathetic, and cruel. Many intersex people identify as typically masculine or feminine people, but there are plenty who do not do so, and like all genderqueer people, they face a lot of social bias. We have no duty as intersex people to be genderqueer, but I see a strong moral imperative for us to support people who do have genderqueer identities and manners of selfexpression. There are enough hurtful myths circulating about intersex people already. We don't need to add one of our own to the mix.
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