Current Medical Protocols
Normalising surgeries are performed in Ireland on the genitals of intersex children for what medical professionals have referred to as “social emergencies” rather than because of medical necessity. Current medical ideology stems from the theories of Dr John Money.
In the 1950s, New Zealand psychologist Dr John Money published his theory of human gender, providing the medical establishment with a solution to problems posed by intersex bodies. Money believed that gender was fluid in all human beings until the age of 2, advising that when presented with an intersex infant it was important for medical professionals to choose either a male or female gender and then cement that decision with surgery. Money’s theory paved the way for the normalisation of medical intervention for intersex children. Many intersex babies were assigned female at birth due to the ease of creating the appearance of female genitalia in comparison with male genitalia.
Under Money’s protocol, parents were advised to keep the child’s medical history secret from friends and relatives as well as from the intersex child themselves. To Dr John Money, consistency in parenting in the assigned gender was key to a successful outcome. If the outcome was bad, as with Money’s patient David Reimer who committed suicide in 2004, Money would blame inconsistency in parenting rather than it being a problem with his theory.
There is little if any follow up in Ireland with intersex people by medical professionals and intersex people and parents are often misled as to the rarity of intersex variations, leading intersex people to grow up in isolation. With intersex variations hidden even from intersex people themselves, intersex has been all but erased from the world while surgeries and hormonal interventions on intersex children continue. Because people are not presenting at their doctors or at the hospital as intersex, there has been no specialist care developed to meet the needs of intersex people throughout the course of their lives.
Many intersex people reported that the secrecy about their bodies growing up was damaging. While medical interventions are performed on intersex children with the intention of helping them blend into a binary society, for many it had an opposite effect, causing them to feel apart from and separated from society.
Many people find out they are intersex later in life during medical exams, DNA tests, or by finding their own cases in medical books. In the 1990s, with the availability of the internet, intersex people began to find each other and compare their experiences.
Many intersex people report experiencing sexual discomfort and difficulties associated with early medical interventions.
Increasingly, medical professionals are willing to admit that when infants with ambiguous genitalia are assigned one of two genders at birth, they don’t always get it right. While transgender and intersex are not the same thing, rates of gender dysphoria have been found to be higher in intersex than amongst non-intersex people and many intersex people were assigned female just because those surgeries were considered easier to perform. Intersex people assigned the wrong gender at birth may be subjected to the violence and discrimination experienced by transgender people. Intersex people experiencing gender dysphoria are left facing wait times that can span several years to be seen at the National Gender Service in the Republic of Ireland.
Intersex invisibility has resulted in a lack of cultural representation. Intersex people do not get to see intersex characters very often in books, film, or television, and neither do the public. This contributes to stigma against intersex people and a world where there are few legal protections for intersex people.
Normalising surgeries are performed in Ireland on the genitals of intersex children for what medical professionals have referred to as “social emergencies” rather than because of medical necessity. Current medical ideology stems from the theories of Dr John Money.
In the 1950s, New Zealand psychologist Dr John Money published his theory of human gender, providing the medical establishment with a solution to problems posed by intersex bodies. Money believed that gender was fluid in all human beings until the age of 2, advising that when presented with an intersex infant it was important for medical professionals to choose either a male or female gender and then cement that decision with surgery. Money’s theory paved the way for the normalisation of medical intervention for intersex children. Many intersex babies were assigned female at birth due to the ease of creating the appearance of female genitalia in comparison with male genitalia.
Under Money’s protocol, parents were advised to keep the child’s medical history secret from friends and relatives as well as from the intersex child themselves. To Dr John Money, consistency in parenting in the assigned gender was key to a successful outcome. If the outcome was bad, as with Money’s patient David Reimer who committed suicide in 2004, Money would blame inconsistency in parenting rather than it being a problem with his theory.
There is little if any follow up in Ireland with intersex people by medical professionals and intersex people and parents are often misled as to the rarity of intersex variations, leading intersex people to grow up in isolation. With intersex variations hidden even from intersex people themselves, intersex has been all but erased from the world while surgeries and hormonal interventions on intersex children continue. Because people are not presenting at their doctors or at the hospital as intersex, there has been no specialist care developed to meet the needs of intersex people throughout the course of their lives.
Many intersex people reported that the secrecy about their bodies growing up was damaging. While medical interventions are performed on intersex children with the intention of helping them blend into a binary society, for many it had an opposite effect, causing them to feel apart from and separated from society.
Many people find out they are intersex later in life during medical exams, DNA tests, or by finding their own cases in medical books. In the 1990s, with the availability of the internet, intersex people began to find each other and compare their experiences.
Many intersex people report experiencing sexual discomfort and difficulties associated with early medical interventions.
Increasingly, medical professionals are willing to admit that when infants with ambiguous genitalia are assigned one of two genders at birth, they don’t always get it right. While transgender and intersex are not the same thing, rates of gender dysphoria have been found to be higher in intersex than amongst non-intersex people and many intersex people were assigned female just because those surgeries were considered easier to perform. Intersex people assigned the wrong gender at birth may be subjected to the violence and discrimination experienced by transgender people. Intersex people experiencing gender dysphoria are left facing wait times that can span several years to be seen at the National Gender Service in the Republic of Ireland.
Intersex invisibility has resulted in a lack of cultural representation. Intersex people do not get to see intersex characters very often in books, film, or television, and neither do the public. This contributes to stigma against intersex people and a world where there are few legal protections for intersex people.