Conditions
Intersex
Being intersex is when a person is born with both male and female characteristics, and affects around 1 in 2000 people each year. This condition is not always recognised at birth, with some people experiencing problems when they reach puberty by developing gender characteristics outside their labelled sex. Traditionally, doctors and parents have decided on behalf of the baby which gender they will fit in to, but recent debate has brought forward the opinion that children should be allowed to grow up happily with both sexual characteristics before deciding for themselves. At birth doctors would perform surgery to leave the child with wholly male or female genital characteristics so that the child can grow as being either male or female. Sufferers who decide that they have either been labelled as being the wrong gender, or choose their own gender identity themselves later on in life can also receive surgery and/or hormone treatment to develop the gender characteristics they wish.
This condition is often linked to Androgen Insensitivy Syndrome where a person is born genetically male but whose genitals have some form of female appearance. This is due to a lack of sensitivity to androgen which helps to develop the male reproductive organs when a child is in the womb. Both these conditions are what doctors call medically sex development disorders and are different from conditions such as gender dysphoria, where a person feels that they are trapped inside a body with the wrong sex.
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I've considered writing a book about this. It makes for very complex situations.
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I was born in 1947 and these things were a deadly secret, I was never told anything as a child though as I grew I noticed differences in my genitals. I know that I have a hole were my penis had been but no cliteris I have sacks for testicals and I can feel tinny testicles with tubes, my vagina is to far back and has a hole were I urinate.I have busts, in my head I feel neither male or female but I do prefer woman , I feel like a camp man who likes woman but in a strange body . My medical records have been lost over the years, my parents dead so I may never know why I'm like this.
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I was born with an undescended testis that surgically brought into proper position when I was ten years old. Even though I married and after many years of marriage was able to have children I never looked at myself as a true male. This testis never grew much more than a couple of centimeters most of my life and in fact the other testis never developed to half the size of a normal testis. I was in my early forties when one day I noticed the undescended testis started to grow very rapidly. I rush to the doctor and after a lot of faults starts it was discovered I had testicular cancer. A Alphafeto protein test showed my levels where at 10000. Surgery to remove the testis showed it was in fact an ovary in addition a separate teratoma tumor was attached. After four months of chemotherapy I had surgery at the Mayo Clinic for what was discovered to be another huge teratoma. This was 14.5x8.5cm and had arms, legs, eyes ect. It was at the Mayo that they told me for the first time that I had Ovarian cancer. Now this is the reason I felt I as in deed a women my whole life and in fact I felt like I was pregnant from my early twenties. I'm I Intersex? Or is this one of those medical unknowns? While I look male from the outside I clearly have few male characteristic. Please put this into perspective for me. I've seen phycologists and they tell me I have Gender Identity Disorder but I feel I have an Intersex condition. All in all I live a very happy life and have been married for 38 years and when I try to describe myself one word it would be "eclectic" I was tested for AIS and it came negative but I still could be PAIS no additional testing was done for this. Dave
Asked on 4 Sep 2011 18:11 by David
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Is there any surgery available to remodel your vagina?
Asked on 6 May 2011 00:33 by Caz
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yes...
Posted on 1 Aug 2011 23:15 by Lucy
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This is a good answer
i dont know whether i am intersex or not,it feels like i have a really small,kind of stick like muscle in my vagina.is this normal?what should i do if i am intersex?
Asked on 14 Apr 2011 20:49 by sheila
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hi, i have the same problem. i see that this was posted a while ago, have you gotten any further into finding out what it is?
Posted on 21 Jan 2012 08:47 by ruth
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This is a good answer
I Have the same thing.. it blocks the penis frm going into ur vagina, bc it does mine.
Posted on 13 May 2012 11:31 by Nikki
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This is a good answer
How do you decide what sex you are?
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You just "know".
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you decide based on what feels right. some people identify as male, others female, some like to flip between the two depending on their mood. some people like to be both at once.
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can you still get pregnant if you are intersex?
Asked on 19 Feb 2011 15:21 by jo
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i just wanted to post this comment about the man that was on who was intersexed i find him really brave as not many people would want to come out and let people know. I really liked that he was as open as he was and found it interesting. I tke my hat off to him and hope he is a very successful photographer in the future.
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if you are born intersex can you still have children? i have more female then male
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