Intersex surgeries spark move away from drastic treatment

[Surya Gayatri]

CHICAGO (AP) — She was born to a young Chicago couple, named Jennifer, and grew into a beautiful long-lashed child with wavy dark hair, big brown eyes and a yearning, youthful desire to be just like all the other girls.


(AP) In this Thursday, Feb. 19, 2015 photo, Pidgeon Pagonis poses for a photo at her home...

Only she wasn't. Doctors first noticed her slightly enlarged genitals, and then discovered she had testes inside her abdomen and male chromosomes. And so began a series of surgeries to make things "right."

Jennifer Pagonis was born intersex, an umbrella term for several conditions in which an infant's reproductive anatomy doesn't conform to standard definitions of male or female. The physical effects can be subtle, or very obvious.


(AP) This circa 1990 photo provided by George Pagonis shows his child, Jennifer Pagonis,...

Prevalence estimates vary, from more than 1 in 1,000 newborns, which includes conditions that involve mildly atypical genitals, to about 1 in 5,000 for more obvious cases. Experts say there's no evidence numbers are increasing, although rising awareness has led more families to seek treatment at specialty centers like the one in Chicago.

The new treatment approach stems partly from a 2006 consensus statement on intersex disorders by U.S. and European medical specialists who advocated against knee-jerk surgeries and said older patients should be involved in some decisions. That year the American Academy of Pediatrics retired an old surgery-focused policy.

http://apnews.excite.com/article/20150417/us--med--intersex_children-696841353c.html

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Do take the trouble to click on the html. The larger article is worth the read. Fascinating.

[REP]

1. I'm glad there's a move away from surgery at birth/in childhood

The reasons it was done were horrible - one frequently given was to make diaper changing easier on the parents - and it really messed up a lot of people's lives. The condition is too complex to be given a snap decision by someone other than the person who lives in that body.

[Surya Gayatri]

2. And, don't forget the 'shame' connected with having what

they used to call a 'hermaphrodite'. They used to be hidden away and then sold off to freak shows and circuses.

[REP]

4. I think the mutilation at birth is even worse than being in a sideshow

Not that I think that was a great life, but their bodies remained intact and functioning. The "remedial" surgeries often result in pain and loss of of sexual function and/or feeling, which is a pretty horrible thing to take from someone.

Look up "Dr" John Money and you may join me is wishing there were such a thing as hell and that he was in it. It is largely because of him these surgeries were done on helpless infants.

[Surya Gayatri]

6. The horror, the horror. You have to think that these were

really sadists masquerading as physicians. Can't even begin to comprehend the suffering.

[REP]

7. Some may have really thought they were helping, but Money was trying to prove a theory

Namely his "tabula rasa" theory, that infants are a blank slate with no traits (personality, gender, sexuality, etc) "hard wired" and the infant could be molded into anything - a male baby into a female child with no problems. He was extremely wrong, and a lot of people were harmed by him and his idiot idea.

[Surya Gayatri]

8. Not the first and certainly not the last, sadly.

I wonder if Dr. Mengele did any experiments on 'intersex' children.

[randome]

3. I'm currently reading Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides, a Pulitzer prize-winning novel.

I highly recommend it.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]I'm always right. When I'm wrong I admit it.
So then I'm right about being wrong.[/center][/font][hr]

[Surya Gayatri]

5. Thanks, will see if I can find it over here in France...

I presume it deals with the issue of gender identity?

[REP]

9. It's not that great. It's about an intersexed person

With the "science!" explanation that incest caused the condition

There is an excellent documentary with many interviews with intersex people but I'll be damned if I can remember the name of it. It covers Money's role in the surgery-at-birth idea.

[Surya Gayatri]

10. If the title of the docu. comes to you, give me a heads up, OK?

[randome]

11. It's from the point of view of a hermaphrodite.

And REP is right, there are problems with some of the assumptions and the science behind it. But the writing style is great -IMO- and it does have some great insights.

Thoroughly enjoyable on a number of fronts.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]The truth doesn’t always set you free.
Sometimes it builds a bigger cage around the one you’re already in.[/center][/font][hr]