Dr Rick's comment

[jaynez31]

While I was surfing the internet, I found Dr. Rick's statement which made me soooo upset by saying "ambiguous genitalia are "a serious disease", without hesitation, and "management of ambiguous genitala in the newborn"...and he like to performe "the potential and limits of reconstructive surgery"?
However, I believe the corrective surgeries more likely caused various mental illnesses.

( Definition)
disease
a condition of a person, animal, or plant in which its body or structure is harmed because an organ or part is unable to work as it usually does; an illness.


By Dr. Rick:
"Ambiguous genitilia are a manifestation of a serious disease, not an oppurtunity to delay life-altering distinctions and treatment. The disease sometimes occurs in conjunction with serious and potentially life-threatening anatomic anomalies of the digestive and/or urogenital tract that can't wait until puberty to be corrected. Gender assignment cannot be practically put-off for a dozen or so years without profound and harmful implications for the patient and his/her family under most circumstances. Human beings are she's and he's, not it's.

Karyotyping (chromosomal analysis), the anatomic condition of the baby, biochemical and imaging studies, and the etiology of the genital malformations can lead to a precise and unambiguous diagnosis. Management of ambiguous genitalia in the newborn, when done properly, utilizes an entire multidisciplinary team along with the family in every step of the diagnostic procedures, the choice of sex assignment, and the treatment strategy; a delay in gender assignment and definitive treatment is now rarely warranted.

As a general rule, female pseudohermaphrodites (genotypic females) are usually declared to be female sex at birth. In cases of male pseudohermaphroditism (genotypic males), the decision can sometimes be more complex. In all cases, the potential and limits of reconstructive surgery and the pubertal "programmed" response of the genitalia to endogenous and exogenous hormones must be considered.

What's not entirely clear from the other posts on this thread is how assigning gender to a child with a birth-defect should be any more of a moral dilemma than assigning gender to a healthy baby, or how a delayed repair of deformed genitalia is somehow more ethically appropriate than a delayed repair of a cleft palate, an undescended testicle, or an imperforate vagina."
http://www.iidb.org/vbb/showthread.php?t=75662&page=2&pp=25

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[Betsy]

Agreed...sounds like someone who actually does do surgery and tries to justify them by reciting outdated stuff from outdated textbooks. In fact, his words of Management of ambiguous genitalia in the newborn, when done properly, utilizes an entire multidisciplinary team along with the family in every step of the diagnostic procedures, are starkly familiar to the medical training video excerpted in Redefining Sex.

It's also full of the misconception that those against surgery advocate delaying a gender assignment or raising the child as "it" which is patently untrue. It's almost funny because those who think surgery is a good idea see not doing it as resulting in that and yet most advocates say to raise the child in the most likely outcome without doing any surgical reinforcement.

Betsy

[Dana Gold]

quote from Dr. God:

"or how a delayed repair of deformed genitalia is somehow more ethically appropriate than a delayed repair of a cleft palate, an undescended testicle, or an imperforate vagina"

One thing this doctor does not say is that in cleft palate repair and other "non-genital related" surgeries the child is usually told about it; whereas in genital surgeries a shroud of secrecy envelopes the entire picture. The "disease" itself defined as a shameful deformity. something more "horrific" than other conditions (by comparison) as indicated by Dr. Righteousness : "Human beings are she's and he's, not it's".

...and according to him (and others) ALL such conditions in dire need of immediate surgical intervention. "rush to judgment"?

I wonder how his arrogant outlook would change if he were to be born (in next life) with ambiguous genitalia and experience all of the "clinical picture":

"But, Mom, I don't feel like a girl (sob, sniff)"

"Oh, stop that! Look between your legs...that means you're a girl"!!

"But, Mom, it doesn't really look the other girls' "things" and I don't have periods....why"???

"Please, honey, I've got a bad headache now, go outside and play like a good boy (:eek: ) ........er, like a good girl":rolleyes:

"Huh, Mom, what did you say!?.:( :confused: Mommy, what happened to me!!??... am I really an "it"!? :eek: ......ohhhhhh!!....(sob, sob)"

Jaynez31 quote:

"However, I believe the corrective surgeries more likely caused various mental illnesses"

[ptrinkl108]

Hi Dana,

I enjoyed your "dialog". I remember a bleak world growing up.

When I was six, leaving school was a daily nightmare, because for months on end, a bully targeted me for abuse after school let out. I was terrified of leaving school. I am not sure why this particular guy bullied me. It was probably because I was an easy target and I was "different". Who knows if it was because I was gender-variant or perceived as being possibly gay? I will leave that matter to the social scientists to sort out.

Many non-intersex kids are also bullied. I know that this fact has occasionally been used in the past to pressure intersex children into not complaining about being bullied. (I call this the -"See, it happens to everybody." attitude.). The important thing was that I could not tell my parents or teachers because the years of shame and secrecy around my infant genital surgery had already set up a psychological dynamic involving denial. (I call this the - "See, you are like everybody else." attitude.) There was no possibility of communication. I believed that I was an "it". As much as my parents wanted to love me, I don't believe that they could accept me as intersex. I figured out very early in life that there is not really much love in this world. The basic message in my family was to keep a stiff upper lip about everything. I could not talk to my parents about being different. The doctors had probably instructed them that it was in my "best" interests not to tell me the truth.

Arguments about third-gender and male/female sex assignment leave me cold. Apparently, Dr. Rick does not understand many important aspects of intersex. First, I was always an "it" despite being raised as a boy. Infant genital surgery does not change this. However the surgery did create an "illness" were none existed before, if one considers sexual problems later in life an "illness". I believe that in most cases, the only way doctors can follow the Hippocratic oath to "do no harm" is to leave the child alone.

Peter