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Born Between Two Sexes
(page 3)
A
PROGNOSIS OF SECRECY AND SHAME
In the case of a potentially intersexed newborn, currently the American Academy
of Pediatrics advises its members to test the newborn's chromosomes, visually
examine the genitalia, and scan for misplaced ovaries or testes. However, even
the AAP admits that "appearances are deceptiveŠ to some extent these
criteria are arbitrary." As a result, in many cases doctors may assign
newborns the wrong sex, leaving the adult patient confused and at odds with
her or his sex. In addition, doctors often don't offer peer support, reliable
information, or conduct follow-up visits, so patients are effectively cut off
from asking questions, learning more about their bodies, or even knowing that
they were born different. "Many women don't know they have anything different
until they reach sixteen and go to the gyno," says Dreger. In a 2002 report
from the Johns Hopkins Children's Center, only half of the intersexed adults
had a "good understanding" of their condition. "Medicine is
not the quick fix it's been shown to be," says Dreger. "These are
not just medical problems: they're social and ethical issues."
Forty-six-year-old Janet Green, who lives in New Jersey with her children,
is one of the growing number of individuals dedicated to taking care of the
emotional and psychological needs of intersex individuals. Green founded Bodies
Like Ours, an organization that intentionally doesn't use the word intersex
because "it's too invasive. We're much more of a group that's interested
in helping adults with bodies like ours accept and understand who they are,
not as a medical phenomenon, just as people." Green, who is a lesbian
and has Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia (CAH), one of several medical conditions
associated with intersexuality, is especially dedicated to keeping intersexed
children whole. To the many doctors who feel that a child with ambiguous genitals
will endure unjust schoolyard trauma, Green counters, "Kids are cruel.
Kids tease about all kinds of things... if you're honest with the child, explain
that they're different, and teach them to have pride and modesty; they're not
frightened of it." Similar to the gay movement's position on homosexuality,
Green feels that the problem lies in society's treatment of an individual's
difference, not in the individuals themselves. Because "the old [medical]
protocol is shame, secrecy, and isolation," Bodies Like Ours hopes to
take intersexuality out of the medical realm and put it into the social and
psychological. "Surgeons don't fix intersexuality because they also don't
fix our brains. Surgery creates a very big problem." (next
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