Intersex Society of North America - Library

"Ambiguous Sex"--or Ambivalent Medicine?

Fri, 2 Sep 2005 09:10:01 -0700

by Alice Domurat Dreger

Republished with kind permission from The Hastings Center Report May/Jun 1998, Volume 28, Issue 3 Pages 24-35.

Subject terms: “Medical ethics,” Surgery, Sexes, Reproductive system, Child development, Babies

Abstract

Ethical issues in the treatment of intersexuality are examined. It is not at all clear if all or even most of the intersex surgeries done today involve what would legally and ethically constitute informed consent.

What makes us “female” or “male,” “girls” or “boys,” “women” or “men”—our chromosomes, our genitalia, how we (and others) are brought up to think about ourselves, or all of the above? One of the first responses to the birth of a child of ambiguous sex by clinicians, and parents, is to seek to “disambiguate” the situation: to assign the newborn’s identity as either female or male, surgically modify the child’s genitalia to conform believably to that sex identity, and provide other medical treatment (such as hormones) to reinforce the gender decided upon. The assumptions that underly efforts to “normalize” intersexual individuals and the ethics of “treatment” for intersexuality merit closer examination than they generally receive.

2000 John W. Duckett Lectureship Invitation

Tue, 15 Mar 2005 11:11:37 -0800

2000 John W. Duckett, Jr., M.D. Pediatric Urology Lectureship

Friday, July 21st, 2000
8:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m.
Dow Auditorium, Towsley Center
University of Michigan Health System
Ann Arbor, Michigan

Each year, the University of Michigan’s Pediatric Urology Department hosts a lectureship in honor of the late John Duckett (a prominent surgeon well known for his hypospadias surgeries). In 2000, the lectures focused on a single topic: the increasingly evident paradigm shift in medical thinking about intersex.

Case Presentation

Douglas A. Canning, M.D.
Associate Professor, Urology, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia

Bibliography of articles accessible online

Mon, 24 Mar 2008 18:16:42 -0800

60 minutes (australia) breaking the silence: Sexual reassignment (antoinette briffa), 2000. Directed by Anon. . Sydney. June 25. Available from: http://sixtyminutes.ninemsn.com.au/01_stories/2000_06_25/story_185.asp.

Anon. . 2000, Fall. Letters (intersex). Whole Earth, 100-101. Available from: http://www.findarticles.com/cf_0/m0GER/2000_Fall/66240481/print.jhtml.

Anon. . 2000, August. Frau und mann - alte mythen nuen rollen. Geo Wissen (special issue on intersex), 26. Available from: http://www.geo.de/magazin/wissen/2000/02.html.

Bibliography sorted by Author

Mon, 24 Mar 2008 18:30:17 -0800

Anon. . 1980, July. Letter to the editor. Ms., 9, 12.

Geraldo: Hermaphrodites, 1989. Directed by Anon. . New York: The Investigative News Group. July 27.

I'm not a man; i'm not a woman (sally), 1989. Directed by Anon. . New York. September 29.

Anon. . 1994, 26 September. Dr. Elders’ medical history. New Yorker, 70, 45-46.

Anon. . 1994, Oct/Nov. The intersexed--who are they? What do they want? Genderflex, IV, 13.

Anon. . 1995. Intersex society. The Society Newsletter (Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality), Spring p. 3.

Bibliography sorted by Year

Mon, 24 Mar 2008 18:18:24 -0800

Meyer-Bahlburg, H. F. L., in press. Gender assignment and reassignment in intersexuality: Controversies, data, and guidelines for research. In: Zderic, S. A., Canning, D. A., Synder Iii, H. M., and Carr, M. C. eds. Pediatric gender reassignment: A critical reappraisal. New York: Plenum.

Rosin, M., forthcoming 2005 April. Intersexuality and universal marriage. In: Law and sexuality: A review of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender legal issues: Tulane University Law School.

Anon. . forthcoming. Colombia constitutional court decisions regarding intersex. In: Minter, S., Currah, P., and Juang, R. eds. Transgender rights: History, politics, and law. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota.

Care and Counseling of the Patient with Vaginal Agenesis

Mon, 11 Dec 2006 09:40:02 -0800

Click here to see a PDF of this article.

Sallie Foley, ACSW

Senior Clinical Social Worker

Department of Social Work

University of Michigan Medical Center/Ann Arbor

George W. Morley, MD

Norman E Miller Professor of Gynecology

Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology

University of Michigan Medical Center Ann Arbor

Originally published as Foley, Sallie, and George W. Morley. 1992. Care and Counseling of the Patient with Vaginal Agenesis. The Female Patient 17 (October):73-80. Republished with kind permission from The Female Patient.

Enfrentándose a la razón

Thu, 1 Jan 2004 00:00:00 -0800

Cheryl Chase

Hypospadias: Parent's Guide to Surgery

Thu, 1 Jan 2004 00:00:00 -0800

What is hypospadias?

ISNA's Recommendations for Treatment

Sat, 1 Jan 1994 00:00:00 -0800

Joan Whelan address to Robert Wood Johnson Medical

Tue, 8 Feb 2005 17:13:30 -0800

This is the presentation made by Joan Whelan in January, 2002 at the Intersex Panel for Sex Week at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. Sex Week, a required part of the curriculum for second year medical students, is a yearly series of lectures, workshops and discussion groups on a wide range of topics concerning human sexuality. The Intersex Panel was arranged by psychologist Nina Williams and consisted of Betsy Driver, Debbie Hartman, Dandara Hill, Kelly Leight, William Reiner M.D., Nina Williams Ph.D., and Joan Whelan (patient advocates, parents, surgeons, psychiatrists, and psychologists).

La verdad por favor

Wed, 9 Feb 2005 19:04:34 -0800

San Francisco, 1 de enero de 1998

Estimada doctora Eva Klein:

Hace mucho tiempo que deseo comunicarme con usted. Pero no es sino después de haber leído y reflexionado sobre el escueto informe que usted envió a mi madre el día 13 de octubre que me he decidido a hacerlo. Debo confesarle que creo que, quizá con la mejor de las voluntades, usted no me está diciendo claramente la verdad.

El informe dice que tengo "INSENSIBILIDAD A LOS ANDRÓGENOS, un cuadro genético ligado al cromosoma X". Ahora bien, de acuerdo a mis investigaciones en literatura médica especializada aquí en San Francisco, éste es un síndrome que corresponde a una serie de características que usted no menciona explícitamente en su informe: presencia de cromosoma XY (lo cual quiere decir que genéticamente soy un hombre), presencia de testículos internos (que corresponderían a las "hernias" que usted señala, y que me fueron extraídas), presencia de próstata (que fue confirmada por una ecografía realizada por un endocrinólogo en julio del 97 en Lima, que ha sido dejada intacta), y presencia de un clítoris más largo que el promedio (que me habría sido cortado en una clitorectomía parcial).

Las personas intersexuadas cuestionan las operaciones

Thu, 1 Jan 2004 00:00:00 -0800

Escrita en el Cuerpo - Archivo y Biblioteca de Lesbianas, Mujeres Bisexuales y Diferentes

Medical Treatment of Intersexuality

Thu, 1 Jan 2004 00:00:00 -0800

ISNA's general Recommendations for treatment of intersexed children

"'Ambiguous sex'--or ambivalent medicine?" Alice Domurat Dreger 1998, from The Hastings Center Report.

Medicalization of Intersexuality: History Resources

Mon, 7 Feb 2005 10:25:09 -0800

Most of the history of medicalization of intersexuality has yet to be investigated. This is pretty close to a complete list of the sources available as of July, 2000.

Some of these books are out of print; if not available at your library, you can often find them available for purchase via ABE Books.

Late Victorian Period

Dreger, Alice Domurat. 1998. Hermaphrodites and the Medical Invention of Sex. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Focusing on events in France and Britain in the late 19th century, Dreger takes us inside doctors’ chambers to see how and why medical and scientific men construed sex, gender, and sexuality as they did, and especially how intersexed bodies—when combined with social exigencies—forced peculiar constructions.

Midwest Pediatric Endocrine Society 2000 Conference

Thu, 1 Jan 2004 00:00:00 -0800

Midwest Pediatric Endocrine Society

La Rabida Children's Hospital

E. 65th Street @ Lake Michigan

Chicago IL 60649

SHERATON HOTEL

301 EAST NORTH WATER STREET