Survey

[kathi guiliano]

This is a survey that I have made to see how being intersex affects a person in today's society. This is a serious questionnaire and I am dedicated to people having a better understanding. Thank you for all of your help. Kathi
www.my3q.com/home/kathig/survey.phtml (http://www.my3q.com/home/kathig/survey.phtml )

[Betsy]

folks,

kathi is a nursing student in upstate NY. I told her it was okay for her to post her request here as it is for a legitimate paper she is doing as part of her studies. It's important that people understand we are real people and slowly, through the efforts of students like her, the medical and psych community is starting to recognize that. I'm convinced that change will occur with the students of today and it is they who will be the ones to undo all the damage the medical community has done over the past 5 decades.

Betsy

[Jules]

the questionare wasn't to hard, others should fill it out too

[Betsy]

um...I must have missed it on my first look...on marital status, there isn't an option for partner. None of the others fit me.

[Andi]

Well I just did it. I hope this helps you, Kathi.

Andi

[Az1]

Go ahead it the survey will not bite.

[Sunshine1]

I have trouble with the wording of the ambiguous genitalia survey.

With respect to the Intersex conditions that do but not all Intersex conditions have both male reproductive organs (testes) and female reproductive organs (ovaries & uterus.)

Note to the Author: Correct the spelling in the title of the survey.

Thanks,

Aimee

[beach]

boy that was painless!!!! nice but weird poll! beach

[Jules]

A lot of intersexed people with ambigous genitals can be one sex or the other, but share visuals of both. I think they are more common then true herhaphidites, with overies and testes.

[Sunshine1]

Jules:

In the survey, the author used the term reproductive organs vs. the term "visuals" like you stated. Ambiguous is not sure which gender the baby is. Whereas, " share visuals of both" might mislead someone to imagine that the person with an intersex medical condition has both perfect male and female organs and that is rarely the case if true at all. Also, there are people with intersex conditions that have the reproductive organs and chromosomes of one gender but externally they can look like the opposite gender minus the opposite genders reproductive organ.

True hermaphrodites generally don't exhibit external ambiguous genitals and with many other intersex conditions, people only have female( ovaries & uterus) or male (testes) reproductive organs.

I think surveys like this are a whitewash to a diverse and complex subject.


Sincerely,

A. P. Morgan

[Jules]

Yes that is true that some ambigous gentials don't look like eather sex. There are male peushermapdites and female peushermaphides. One can look like the other, or both can't be told apart. I think in terms of male and female as to what germ cells are there in the body. A true hermaphidte had both.
It is very hard to put any intersexed person into one gender class anyway. Being intersexed, and now learning about other intersexed people had been one of the most complex things have have ever studied, and I'm still learning
Julanne

[Sunshine1]

Dear Jules:

When I was born, the doctors thought I was a baby boy, then they thought I was a true hermaphrodite. After many tests it was discovered that I wasn't a boy or a true hermaphrodite but actually a girl with only female chromosomes, uterus and ovaries. No testes were found but due to the extreme external virilization, I was a Pseudo- Hermaphrodite via 11-Hydroxylase Classical Simple Virilizing Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia. The external virilization was caused from my body lacking cortisol to suppress androgens. Someone with CAH takes synthetic cortisone (in my case hydrocortisone) to mimick the bodies response of cortisol. My body is dependent on the hydrocortisone to suppress the excessive androgens and also to help me with physical stress. Without enough cortisol in my body, I could eventually go into an adrenal crisis and expire. Although, people with Salt Wasting CAH are much more likey to have this happen than me.

Personally, it wasn't that hard for me to fit into the "gender class" of female. This matched my complete chromosome make-up and internal female reproductive organs. Many people with Intersex conditions fit into the Male or Female gender regardless of their reproductive or chromosome make-up. Of course, there are many that don't fit into male or female genders and that is awesome too. I am grateful that they held of on surgery until I was five. At least by then it was easier to tell that the gender of my mind and my chromosomes matched. I think the best way to determine the gender of anyone with an intersex condition is to ask them.

Jules, I've read all your posts and you seem like a positive person with a great attitude!

Take Care,

Aimee

[Girlyboy]

I found the survey interesting. I myself don't tell many (just one) people about my condition. I am finding life really hard though because of it. I have the outward apperance of being male, although if nude it would be extreemly obvious that I am not. I am not really sure of what I am. I do not consider myself to be male or female, and for along time I have not.

It is very hard to get along with people in an office enviornment when they treat you as a male and you just don't think like one. I feel like I am lost an drowning some times. I am in a catch 22 situation. Do I tell people in the hope they might come to understand me better? Or do I not tell them in case it results in the sort of harrasment I have faced in the past? My workplace tends to take equity and work place bullying very poorly. Some people even talk of getting out of the equity training at work. At the same time, a lot of the people I work with are very nice people. I just don't know how they will react to something like this. A lot of these people are blokes blokes, they tell bloky jokes and I don't think they mean harm by it, but I don't know if they will change their ways because of me. I kind of think I might be asked to leave because of the disturbance I would be causing at work. I know there is one biggited moron who will probably make my life a misery.

I really feel like I want to burst out crying, but I am missing parts of my brain and the area that connects emotions to tear duscts is not there. That's related to a mildly degenerative memory problem I have which I am also dealing with. I've told people at work about that, but I don't think they belive me even though I've explained it. I get the impression that they think I am lazy. In reality I am just a slow learner because I need to to something five or six times to be able to recall it, and quite litrally I have to choose what to remember because the rest just dissapeers. I am really amazed that I manged to get through my university degree. I don't fortget everything, but I know I forget a lot.

These are very big issues in my life right now, as I have no one but this list to discuss this with. Despite contacting the AIS group in Australia, I have not got much response, only one email in several weeks. I should also point out my email I signed up on is out because of bandwidth problems and hence private messages to me won't reach me. sorry.

I some times feel that I am just adrift in a big sea, where things are beyond my control. I have good days, but I also have bad days when I wish things will end.

[Jules]

Hay I wanted to say a good first step is getting to know some of the people here at bodys. They (We) I realy tkae the time to listen to other personal storys and try to help in any way possable. What we deal with it not easy. but it is not hopeless. When you have freinds that understand and can share their storys this quest for peace with our bodys and minds truely starts. I can understand the depression totaly, have you ever gone to therapy? The tramma that you have faced in life can be worked through. You also can find a gender role that you might fit in better but it takes work to really soul seach who you are. Sometimes intersexed people play differnt roles at diffrent times depending on the people they are around. Cheer up! Things can get better! You found us and we will give you as much support as you need ;)

[Girlyboy]

Hello Jules.

I guess I had a bad day the other day, because I feel much better today. I guess the week ends do that. On Thursday that bigot I mentioned threatened to assult me. Related to something else. The problem is, a lot of people in the office see it as male behaviourand I should just put up with it. It is not hard to put up with. I can't stand such agressive behaviour. It is worrying because I know he has assulted two people in the past and is showing really obvious signs of paranoid delusional behaviour. He yells at himself, he yells into the phone saying 'get off the fucking phone' before making phone calls (We've tried picking up his phone when he's not there and belive me there's never anyone on the line). He has removed his name plaque from his desk three times and we've run out of replacements because we don't know what he does with the old ones.

The guy is probably going to just crack one day and I'm worried I'll be in his sights because he can't stand me. I am the only one who will make formal complaints about his behaviour.

The other people in the office are okay. As I said, they are just guys, doing blokey stuff. They probably don'trealise how much it effects me even though I have made comments aboutit in the past. I don't want to rock the boat because I have found through a very bad experience that the person complaining often gets the blame.

But my office life is not all bad. There are some very good aspects to it. Despite being blokey, the majority of the people I work with have their hearts in the right place, and are good, kind people. Especially the two I sit right near.

It is just soo frustrating not being able to relate to them I guess. And so hard to explain this.

Therepy, sorry, therepy is not a big thing in Australia. Sorry to say this, but it is seen as an American thing. I am not sure it could help, because despite all of the therepists that seem to be in ASmerica, our media here still shows a lot of strange things coming out of America. Possibly that could be causedby people who did not see therepists I suppose?;)

The main reason I do not see therepists is because of a general distrust for anyone in the medical profession and lack of funds.

I have to say that probably my general lonliness in life is a cause of many problems. It is hard to just talk about things with a computer, though the people at the other end of the computer help. A computer can never give you a comforting hug. I really do miss the comfortt of personal contact.

[Andi]

So, are you planning to let us know the results? I for one would be interested in finding out what you've come up with.

Andi

[Betsy]

I just sent Kathy an email asking her to post something about it.

Thanks for the reminder, Andi.

Betsy

[kathi guiliano]

Hello Andi, I am still awaiting the survey information myself to work on that. I had nothing but trouble with the website that my survey was posted on. First off I would like to apologize for ALL the miss spelled words. My 18 year old helped me by setting up the survey. I had all the questions written down & he mis spelled so much while typing it out for the survey. He also negelected to tell me that the website was free only for a week, so when it came time to retrieve my surveys I had to pay for the info. I have no credit card so I had to mail a check to Canada, so needless to say my paper was submitted to my professor without my survey material. But he is allowing me to submit the survey late. So as soon as I get the info, I will let you know. Thanks for your help and patience. Kathi

[Andi]

OK, so were you able to get the info or will we need to redo the survey? I don't mind too much if I do. I just need to know.

Andi

[kathi guiliano]

Hello Andi, I was able to get my survey answers. 72% of the people that answered are single, 1% were married, 1% had a partner, and 26% were divorced. 55% of the people were depressed, 11% felt it had nothing to do with intersex, and 34% were just fine with who they were as a person. Alot of the questions asked I cannot answer in % because they were not the type questions for a % answer. I did however get almost an overwhelming response for the surgery not to be done immediatly after birth. I also got alot of people saying that they were mistrusting of the medical community. I didn't even think to ask that question. I do believe that we should all be in a gender typed as ourselves. Thanks again for your help. Kathi