Intersexuality - Introduction

Definition

Astrological sign for Mercury (gr. Hermes). The cross at the bottom represents femaleness, the crescent moon at the top maleness. The ring represents the individual holding the female and male elements in balance. This sign is now also often used for human intersexuality

Intersexuality is the condition of persons born with a significantly atypical development of their sex organs or with certain chromosomal irregularities.This can result in an indeterminate physical appearance and make an immediate and definite sex assignment difficult. The condition very often affects the external sex organs and is therefore promptly recognized at birth. In other cases, when the internal sex organs are affected, the problem may at first be “hidden” and revealed much later by a medical examination. In still other cases both the external and internal sex organs are affected or they are formed in contradiction to the person’s chromosomal sex (XY females). Certain problems can be corrected by early surgery. In other, more complicated cases, such surgery and other treatments may have to be avoided altogether or postponed until many years later.
Some writers use the term “intersexuality” very broadly and extend it to cover relatively simple conditions such as a very prominent clitoral glans or a very small penis or hypospadia or even undescended testicles. However, we do not follow this usage here. As long as there are no further anatomical irregularities, these latter conditions are better evaluated on their own merits. The “right” size of a clitoral glans or body or of a penis is a matter of opinion, and “corrective” interventions may therefore be superfluous or even harmful. In contrast, a simple hypospadia that can be surgically repaired should be repaired without much soul-searching and extended discussions. Undescended testicles also require timely medical attention in order to avoid later serious health problems.