Dana's ENG 121 Blog

After my research, I have come to the conclusion that sex assignment treatment should not be performed on infants. I believe that sex assignment treatment should only be performed on a person when they are mentally and physically capable of making a decision and giving their consent. This is about where I stood in the beginning of my research because I had already heard many people’s stories about damaging treatment they received when they were infants. While I did know that many intersex people were opposed to treating infants, I was surprised to see how many people in the medical field are starting to take this opinion as well. It’s nice to see that professionals are listening to those affected and working towards collecting data around this topic. Something that I’m still contemplating, because I don’t see it quite as straight forward, is whether sex assignment surgery is genital mutilation. It’s easy for me to look at female genital mutilation and acknowledge the clear ethical...

After exploring different methods of treatment of intersex infants, I wanted to find out what effect intersex has on a person’s mental health. This area is extremely unexplored. There is little mental health data of intersex individuals available. When a medical team first sat down in the 1950’s and drew up a treatment plan for intersex infants, gender and sex was viewed extremely differently. Back in 1950, it didn’t matter that most of the psychological harm intersex individuals endured was because they were ostracized by a society that stigmatized DSD. The blame for their mental health issues was placed on the disorder itself and not the harm inflicted on them by outside forces. I mean, it’s just stupid. Today, we acknowledge that there are many forces that influence mental health among intersex individuals. Bradley University Explained on The Body Project page from Bradley University, it has traditionally been understood that preforming ‘corrective’ surgery on intersex...

To get a better grasp on how different organizations suggest approaching treatment of intersex infants I looked at documents put together by the National Library of Medicine and Comprehensive Child and Adolescent Nursing. Because there has not been much research done on the long-term effects of surgery on intersex infants, much of the treatment guides focus on the ethical aspects and the shifting view on gender identity. Below are summaries of the two different approaches. National Library of Medicine Published on Medline Plus, the medical encyclopedia entry on intersex from the National Library of Medicine first gives an overview of the different types of DSD: 46 XX intersex, 46 XY intersex, true gonadal intersex, and complex or undetermined intersex. An overview of the various categories and potential causes are given. These distinct types range from physical, hormonal, and genetic abnormalities. And to clarify for anyone who doesn’t know, sex and gender is not quite as...