hey UK folks...

[Betsy]

In this month's Bliss magazine is an article about CAH with a young woman named Jennifer. Can someone scan it and email it to me?

Thanks,

Betsy

[Fee]

Hi Betsy
Bought Bliss today. The article will definitely help sell the mag - too titilating and sensational for me. The girl of 14 has had quite a lot of surgery and says that she's glad the surgeons "removed her 'penis'". Whilst any article about an IS condition raises awareness I don't think this one is helping the movement much. Whilst at the young age of 14 she is saying she feels the early surgery was the right decision for her, she is barely through puberty and has not had any sexual relationships yet, so how can she know if the surgery (and therefore scarring) has had an effect on her erotic function? The article mentions no IS organisations or support groups and I feel definitely needs responding to. Will scan you a copy tomorrow sometime.
Best, Fee

[miriam]

Hey Fee,

That doesn't sound good :( Would you please be so kind to send me a scanned copy of that article?

You can reach me at miriam at aisnederland dot nl

Thanks in advance, Miriam

[Betsy]

You can download a copy http://bodieslikeours.org/bliss_sm.zip

I put it into a zip file to force you to download instead of trying to open it on our server. It is a 380kb file but once you download the file, unzip it and then you can see it in your viewer. You may need to zoom in just a bit to clear up the type some.

The file will not be there indefinitely unless I can spend more time to reduce the size of it with proper zip methods as I don't want BLO to absorb the bandwidth costs on it. Of course, legally it's there only as a backup copy for the actual copy you already own.

I don't think it is the worse article in the world and frankly can't see why it would cause harm to anyone. It's written in the personal story "as told to" method and they are likely the young woman's words as she knew how to express them--as a teenager. I think she is actually 17 or 18 now.

She has posted in the past on the cah.org board which is what I am basing my age guess on. Unfortunately, she is being chewed up by the parents who frequent that board in really horrible ways. Their reaction to her personally is really sad and gives a great indication on how parents see this. I would encourage you to find it and read the posts if you have time...lol..you'll see how much they hate me as well. Anyone who steps out of line and dares to tell their story is vilified. It's at congenitaladrenalhyperplasia.org

I personally think she is to be commended for speaking out and for her courage in doing the article even if it has language we may not like or makes claims that we as adults disagree with.

Betsy

[Sofie]

I like the way the article is written. It doesn't talk down to the readers and the layout looks nice. A girl telling her story to other girls.

Recently there was an interview with a mother whos daughter had clitreduction. It was her daughter who had asked for the surgery and she's still glad about her decision.

You can hear the 10 min. interview (in german) here (http://ondemand-mp3.dradio.de/file/dradio/2005/02/09/drb_1445.mp3)
If you have problems accessing it, I can mail it you ( mp3, 2,4MB).

[Fee]

I agree with you Betsy that she is definitely to be commended for telling her story and speaking out. It's mainly the sensational headline that got me...and I do think it ought to have included more support groups at the end of the piece.

I suppose it is quite well-presented Sophie from a girl telling other girls point-of-view. And I suppose surgery doesn't always have the result of decreasing erotic sensation in the hands of a good surgeon.

I think it is the article's apparent condoning of reductive surgery being the best option that gets me, without giving a balanced view of the pros and cons/benefits and risks.

Think I might have been having a too stressful day when I replied to the original post what with worries about possible surgery for my own little girl..all those have I/we made the right decision questions etc., etc. :thinking2