Intersex- The silent minority?

[opiumgirl]

Hi I have been thinking about this for years- but first a definition:

Intersex. Noun. One having both male and female sexual characteristics and organs; at birth an unambiguous assignment of male or female cannot be made.

I had an intersex friend at University and I have been wondering a number of things since then.

1. Is it really as rare as people think? * it is not rare at all about 1/500, in my country it is higher
Most people I have asked have never heard of intersexes.
I think it is more common than we think. Gender re-assignment as babies result in intersexes growing up as either one sex or the other.
In the case of my friend she presented as male at birth and only developed secondary female sexual characteristics in puberty. Does she qualify as a true intersex?

2. Gender re-assignment.
Should this be done at birth, later in life when the person wishes it or at all?

3.Why are they so silent?
I would think the more people know the less discrimination there would be. I might be completely wrong but it seems to me that they either present themselves as men or women. This I imagine can only lead to an enormous amount of pain for the intersex.

4. Why are they so ignored? Are they being ignored?
As far as I know not even the bible has anything to say about it, which should say something. It seems to me that they are being sidelined as medical oddities, which is wrong in my opinion

I would love to know what you think
and I leave you with a picture:

[SuicidiaParasidia]

contrary to popular belief, the human race is still in its infancy. im not surprised that there would be many types of people that we still do not acknowledge yet, and wont, for many years to come. in my country, especially, change is not readily embraced by the majority. it's this kind of mind frame that makes me pessimistic that we'll survive in the long run. a community that does not care for one another is not a community, it is a collection of people just waiting to fight with one another over something silly, like gender, or race, or financial situation, or....

[SimsLover50]

There are many types of intersex individuals and how they are handled should be in a case by case basis and up to the individual's preference.

I don't think they are 'ignored' more like; most intersex individuals do not want to be treated differently, or outted. If an intersex individual wants to be out about it, I see nothing to stop this person from doing so..... But I think most simply want to be treated like everyone else and not outted or made to feel any more different than they do.

There is some debate about instantly gender assigning a child at birth and I'm opposed to that, as well as other forms of genital mutilation that are popular like circumcision- unless there is something medically necessary.

I believe only the individual should make choices about their gender and how they want their genitalia to look, and while I think they can indeed decide as a young person, unless the condition is life threatening, this should not be the choice of anyone but the individual.

[opiumgirl]

ok I did some more home work and I have some links:

in my country
http://www.intersex.org.za/faqgeneral.html

in the US
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/001669.htm

also this is what concerns me:
www.sportsscientists.com/2009/08/caster-semenya-male-or-female.html

Caster Semenya's sex was never confirmed as far as I know, but it does raise an important issue
Also what legal rights do intersexes have, if any?

@ simslover:
I agree with you totally, but I still question the idea of outted, why would such a large part of the world population feel this way?

My friend was totally ashamed of herself for nothing she could help. She was by all appearances a very beautiful woman, in fact she worked as a model. She just had a penis.
This made her personal life hell.
I just think that if we acknowledged that there are more than two sexes it would spare a great many people unnecessary pain.
If more intersexes spoke out maybe people would not be so ignorant/ unaccepting about it.
In my experience people are in out right denial (in terms of society), which is unbelievable considered the statistics * according to my country's statistics at least one person who is an intersex has viewed this thread, yet has no comment. no pressure :)

[SimsLover50]

@ simslover:
I agree with you totally, but I still question the idea of outted, why would such a large part of the world population feel this way?

My friend was totally ashamed of herself for nothing she could help. She was by all appearances a very beautiful woman, in fact she worked as a model. She just had a penis.
This made her personal life hell.
I just think that if we acknowledged that there are more than two sexes it would spare a great many people unnecessary pain. :)

I think there is a growing awareness of intersexuality but I can see why many intersexuals do not want to be... Out and I can see that. It is hard to be 'different' and Gentialia and gender are private for some and they just probably have to endure a lot of with medical and gender-identity issues that they probably are quite content NOT to have to explain themselves to the uneducated. Just enduring medical appointments and school is probably hard enough especially in conservative or backward areas.

I'm sorry what happened to your friend but at least she has a good career. :)

[Mistermook]

1. Is it really as rare as people think? * it is not rare at all about 1/500, in my country it is higher
Most people I have asked have never heard of intersexes.

4. Why are they so ignored? Are they being ignored?

If it's rare then it's not ignored, it's simply rare. If it's not rare, I don't think it's being ignored I think it's not being promoted, which isn't the same thing. If it's not rare, not being promoted, but few people are aware of it, then I'd say it doesn't have much to do with other people but the people with the issue themselves not self-promoting.

In any case, I don't see it as a massive problem. A massive problem is an ubiquitous thing that everyone's aware of but doesn't talk about, or a massive class of people everyone wants to pretend doesn't exist. Depending on where I've lived in the past I've know up to a handful of transvestites. Where I live now statistically should have transvestites but they're nowhere near as presented as they've been in other places. Is that my fault for not seeking them out though? I've got no good reason to seek out transvestites, and only one person in my past has undergone gender modification of any sort. I don't have anything against people regardless of their sexuality or lack thereof, but I don't understand that it's somehow my fault if discussion gender issues that aren't my gender issues aren't on the tip of my tongue.

For that matter, there's a faction of my family that's amok with lupus. For all I know I carry hidden risk factors. What do I know about lupus? Not a lot. People concern themselves with things immediately important to them. As long as they aren't taking that and using it to promote a bias against those things that don't immediately concern them, I don't see what the problem is. Going back to the "dating people of other races" conversation, there's a difference between someone from Iowa who doesn't date black people because he or she doesn't know any and one who won't date black people because he or she hasn't ever known any. If all of my friends suddenly showed up and declared themselves hermaphrodites with lung cancer, I'd immediately immerse myself in knowledge and concern over those things. What I do know about gender reassignment surgery has come from talking to people who had those concerns, people closer to the issues. But it's not my issue, and I'd be pretty damned upset if someone wanted to reassign my gender to make it a concern of mine.

2. Gender re-assignment.
Should this be done at birth, later in life when the person wishes it or at all?
I suppose it depends on the medical necessity and preferences of the parents, then the person once they become an adult, right? I accept that some people are going to be unhappy with their parent's decisions, and that some decisions everyone's parents make for them are not the decisions every person might make for themselves. And doctors have biases and doctors are sometimes wrong too - but again, if it's rare enough then it's not like there's a substantial body of work compared to some of the other options people take on the part of children. I think we can be reassured, for instance, that letting your kids get their ear pierced doesn't emotionally scar them, even if you do it to them without consultation when they're very young.

Children don't know enough to make informed decisions about their care, or else they'd be adults. That doesn't mean that adults are automatically informed, but adults have to be assumed to be regardless or society breaks down with lack of responsibility. We take that responsibility away from parents in very few instances, like when a parent is withholding live saving medicine. Regardless of that, I'm not certain there's any argument about gender reassignment that's compelling in the same way. Someone who grows up terribly disappointed and disjointed from their sexuality or sex life... That's rotten luck but even perfectly average, heterosexual and nothing out of the ordinary with their gender, sorts of people have terrible disconnects with their sexuality and terrible sex lives. And going back to yet another thread, some people grew up with gender roles assigned to them in the Tonka trucks and baby dolls they were given and grow up to be heterosexual and perfectly happy, and some people grow up perfectly happy homosexuals with the exact same sort of upbringing.

So I'm not sure it makes a significant difference either way, unless there is a medically sound reason one way or another. I don't think people have much choice in what sort of sexuality they have, but I do think people have a choice in how happy or unhappy they're going to be in life (with some notable exceptions for folks with the bad luck for crappy brain chemistry.) Your parents making a decision for you as a child might be good for you, or it might be bad for you. That's really not much different than any decision anyone ever makes for themselves really.

3.Why are they so silent?
They're obviously not as interested in my opinion as the internet always seems to be.

[SimsLover50]

I think in some countries changing an interesex child to one gender or another at birth is now illegal and considered genital mutilation. In those countries, the child has to be a certain age to consent to the procedure.

[Weisskreuz]

Are you sure they're silent? Or are you just not paying any attention.

To address your 3rd question. There are many many minority groups that are vocal about their oppression and are completely ignored by the majority. Vocal or not the majority will ignore what it doesn't want think about.

[Pyba]

I'm intersex and we're the silent minority. Not many people think we exist. Some of us aren't activists (like myself.) People who are intersexed tend to be extreemely rare. Has anyone questioned about Polynesian's people? For me, it's important for people to know wht being intersex is.

I have a disorder called congential adrenal hyperplaia - my adrenals are not functioning. The first thing I want people to know about my disorder is that I take a chronic medcine - still human. I have genitals that look neither male or female - still human.

[opiumgirl]

I'm intersex and we're the silent minority. Not many people think we exist. Some of us aren't activists (like myself.) People who are intersexed tend to be extreemely rare. Has anyone questioned about Polynesian's people? For me, it's important for people to know wht being intersex is.

I have a disorder called congential adrenal hyperplaia - my adrenals are not functioning. The first thing I want people to know about my disorder is that I take a chronic medcine - still human. I have genitals that look neither male or female - still human.

Thank you so much for sharing! I gathered from the lack of response on this thread that people who are intersex do not really want it known, probably because they feel like my friend and also like you said you are still human. I find it very very sad that you even make that statement but I get it, because so many people deny that intersexes even exist.

Kudo's to you for speaking up! You are no longer silent.

BTW in my country it is not rare the statistics say 1/50. that is very common, yet no one I have talked to even know that it exists! how is that for denial?

[whiterider]

I think you misread. :) The website says 1 in 50 people in SA are born with atypical genitals. I'd say that's probably an underestimation, but, well, it depends what you consider to be atypical. The website gives the example of individuals born with extra nipples; there are also examples such as agonadism, abnormally small or large genitalia (for either gender) - and there are a few more listed here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congenital_anomalies_of_the_genitalia). The vast majority of such people are not intersex.

For persons born intersex, the website you linked to cites 1 in 500 births, which works out to 0.2%. This seems to tally with the other available statistics (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intersex#Prevalence).

[opiumgirl]

I think you misread. :) The website says 1 in 50 people in SA are born with atypical genitals. I'd say that's probably an underestimation, but, well, it depends what you consider to be atypical. The website gives the example of individuals born with extra nipples; there are also examples such as agonadism, abnormally small or large genitalia (for either gender) - and there are a few more listed here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congenital_anomalies_of_the_genitalia). The vast majority of such people are not intersex.

For persons born intersex, the website you linked to cites 1 in 500 births, which works out to 0.2%. This seems to tally with the other available statistics (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intersex#Prevalence).

Thanks, I think you might be right. I can only blame brain-freeze from lack of sleep.
Still, I find it bizarre that so many people have never heard of intersex.
But I have nothing new to add to this.