PART THREE - Where It All Starts

I think the best place to start this conversation is at the beginning, and an explanation of what it means to be “Intersex”. The term Intersex is a general term used for a variety of conditions where a person is born with a mental, reproductive, sexual anatomy, or physical body characterizes that does not fit the typical and accepted definitions or conditions to be clearly male or female.

If you ask experts at medical centers how often a child is born so noticeably atypical in terms of genitalia that a specialist in sex differentiation is called Intersex, the number comes out to about 1 in 2000 births here in the U.S. But a lot more children than that are born with mental and subtler forms of sex anatomy variations, most of which won’t show up until after puberty.

Physical and Genetic Intersex Conditions:
Visible physical conditions of a person born with a level of the Intersex condition might be born appearing to be male on the outside, but having mostly female-typical anatomy on the inside. Or a person may be born with genitals that seem to be in-between the usual male and female types—for example, a girl may be born with a noticeably large clitoris, or lacking a vaginal opening, or a boy may be born with a notably small penis, or with a scrotum that is divided so that it has formed more like labia.

Of the 1 in 2,000 children born with variations of these physical conditions often times are operated on to help clearly define them as male or female. Unfortunately when the doctors and parents guess wrong, we end up with a male who mentally has developed into a female, or a female who mentally has developed into a male. Many of these people consider themselves transsexuals, but actually suffer from a more extreme case of the Intersex condition.

Other Intersex children may be born with mosaic genetics (a mixture of XX and XY chromosomes), so that some of her cells have XX chromosomes and some of them have XY. Those with mosaic genetics tend to be for example males who look ‘more’ female and females that look ‘more’ male, which does not always correspond with the development of the hypothalamus (primary organ that dictates sexual identity). The result is a child born mentally male, however his body is less male or more feminine, and versa for women.


Childhood, Puberty and Adults with Intersex Conditions:
Though we speak of Intersex as an inborn condition, Intersex anatomy doesn’t always show up at birth. Sometimes a child isn’t found to show signs of an intersex condition until early childhood. Many times this is identified with male children who consistently are attracted to girl’s activities (dolls, dressing up, etc), and girls who are more focused on participating in traditional boy activities (contact sports, boys clothing, etc).

In many cases a person isn’t found to have Intersex anatomy until she or he reaches the age of puberty, or finds himself an infertile adult. Some people live and die with Intersex anatomy without anyone (including themselves) ever knowing. Many know they are different but never really understand why.

There are definite clues to an Intersex condition after puberty and in adult males and females. A few examples of this are boys that are obviously more feminine and girls that are obviously more male in their behavior. Or at the onset of puberty, a male may develop breasts, an inability to grow facial hair, his penis will not develop to a normal adult size, or he will develop more female facial features. A female may not develop what is considered normal size breasts, female sex organs may never fully develop, or she may develop a more masculine/muscular body and facial features.

So what is it that caused the creation of ‘Intersex’ children? Is it nature, is it the luck of the draw. Research tells us that the Intersex condition is locked in when the ‘hypothalamus’ (the neurological center for sexuality) is developed. This happens during the first trimester of pregnancy.