Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome: Intersex And Pagonis Story

In this section of chapter 3 Georgian Davis talks about the power the medical field had on the topic of the intersex body. Georgina set up an interview at a pediatric medical center with Dr. I who was a well-known expert of the intersex body. After the publication of the “Consensus Statement of Management of Intersex Disorders” intersex language had been replaced with the terminology DSD (Disorders of Sex Development) in the medical profession. As mentioned in chapter 2 she reiterates critiques that the medical field have undergone based on their inability to diagnose honesty to people with intersex traits. She noted that the medical profession can either do harm or good to the intersex community based on its position in the level of gender structure. In the medical profession, there was not always a form of naming abnormalities. It began with the Greeks and continued into the 18th century until they created a classification of the many medical traits. Sociologist Phil Brown argues that for there to be diagnostics there has two be two parts to complete it. One the diagnosis is technique which includes forming the classification by using various tasks and techniques. While the work diagnosis includes clinical evaluations and task. By using this form of diagnosis, we can better understand intersexuality.

“I'm not like other girls,and I don't want to be. The person who people want me to be isn't who I am, but that doesn't mean I'm going to change my gender to fit the stereotypes. I'm going to remain a girl who loves boy things” (Anonymous). Science has crossed the line with gender reassignment surgery. The process of gender reassignment surgery is an unnecessary mutilation. It reinforces gender stereotypes. Also there is no scientific proof that the ‘disease’ that people claim to have even exist.

Partial Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome--that was the condition spat in my face as the doctor came in to tell me what was wrong with my child. But don’t worry! Corrective surgery can come to the rescue and “fix” my child. Basically, my child doesn’t have a place in the world unless they fit the norms, and surgery is the only way to do so. Honestly? Fuck that. The surgery is completely unnecessary because there aren’t any serious medical implications, and would only cause further harm; raising my child without a forced gender will allow for both freedom in gender development as well as avoiding the trauma of incorrect gender assignment.

Sexuality and gender identity issues have had a long history in the fields of mental health and public policy. There has been much debate surrounding the inclusion of issues related to gender and sexual identity in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual since its initial stages of development (Drescher, 2010). Debates in this field of interest have been fragmented between several stakeholders (Ehrbar, 2010). This fragmentation has created complications in the process of developing United States policies that are inclusive of individuals with gender identities that do not match the gender to which they were assigned at birth. Specifically, policies surrounding gender reassignment surgeries have been difficult to develop and

The doctors essential pick what gender they want the child to be based on what they observe the child's genitals to be. As discussed in the book, male children with unusually small penises have had operations

The patient reported that he had never felt comfortable in his own skin and was exclusively attracted to females (Bradley, S.J., Oliver, G. D., Chernick, A. B,, & Zucker, K. J., 1998). This case study displays that genetic factors have a higher effect on gender identity than modeling or parental rearing. Despite the social and environmental factors rearing her to be a girl he always showed his masculinity. This study is interesting and should also be included in transsexual studies.

The ethical issue lies in the doctors and parents not necessarily being “informed voters”. For example, one of the doctors, listed as treating a patient, had never before actually administered

By having the responsibility of gender assignment belong to the medical professional of children at birth, children and their parents have suffered after the details of their physical beings had been disclosed. The results of this inappropriate use of genital surgeries for gender assignment usually lead to bullying, gender identity disorder, self-harm, and suicide. However, when this treatment came into practiced, doctors had believed that it would be traumatic for a child to remain intersexed. It was also widely believed that by fixing the child’s gender immediately after birth that the child would have a better chance at becoming “normalized.”

The article mainly discusses the life of being born as a hermaphrodite and the contradictions that medical management and medical investigators have on them. The author of the article, Anne Fausto-Sterling, believes that hermaphrodites are human too and that the medical field should only worry about the hermaphrodite’s health conditions rather than their physical appearance. The article states that Western culture strongly agrees that there are only two sexes, so being a hermaphrodite is none existing. They are simply unexplored by science itself (pg. 2). Sterling believes that hermaphrodites have needs as well as problems that need to be met and that they deserve to be accounted for as sexes.

The condition and conclusion to act hastily to decide the sex of an individual is complicated, and most in the western medical fraternity believe that it should take place

Donna Chaff is clinically diagnosed as having Complete Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome. This will be a summary of her clinical and personal commentary about living with CAIS. She is the first-born child (of five children), and had no complications at birth or during gestation. She experienced a hernia at six months and four years old, which is typical of those affected by AIS. She was not diagnosed with CAIS when she was seen for the hernias. She did not start puberty at the normal age of 11-14. She did not have pubic hair, underarm hair, breast development, menstruation did not occur and she was also very tall for her age. This wasn’t an immediately red flag as her mother had late onset of menstruation and pubic development. When she was a

International, national and provincial policy needs revision as the legal rights still vary from different countries and states when it comes to gender identification and poses a significant threat to discriminate against intersex individuals. This lack of support from society strengthens the urgency of medical assignment and surgical interventions to intersex children. However, the psychological ramifications of surgical interventions cannot be ignored. While scholars, ethicists and scientist continue to provide insights and work on the ideal approach, surgical interventions are still being practiced today; heavily influenced by socio-cultural views of gender binarism. In an ethical standpoint, nurture over nature raises the question of who gets to decide what normal genitals should look like? Having the “correct” genitals, chromosomes and hormones shouldn’t be the only way to guarantee a legal spot in a

Genitals that were ambiguous were just thought of as a natural variation of human anatomy [2]. Due to a huge leap in medicine in the 20th century, the medical field started to view intersexual conditions as abnormal and curable through surgery and other options. Starting in the 50s, doctors have used the “concealment-centered model” of healthcare when intersexuality is encountered. Using this model’s derivation, the “optimum of gender rearing model”, doctors “correct” the ambiguous genitals by means of surgery and hormonal treatments. Under this model, gender assignment should be done as early as possible so that children would “grow up to be good (believable and straight) girls and boys” [1]. This method of healthcare tries to “normalize” intersex individuals because it is trying to prevent the individuals from being “ostracized” in society

Androgen insensitivity syndrome occurs due to a mutation in the gene coding for androgen receptors. Faulty receptors leads to a reduced response to testosterone, causing XY males to manifest female physical traits. This provokes the question: Does the opposite phenomenon, androgen hypersensitivity syndrome, also exist? Such phenomenon could hypothetically occur due to overexpression of the androgen receptor gene, leading to greater number of receptors and more potent androgen response. If this phenomenon does exist, there could be many possibilities of altered organizational and activational behaviours. For instance, potentiated androgen response could mean earlier and rapid puberty in males that is, quicker growth of facial hair and a deepening

As stated in the introduction there are multiple ways in which a gene can and does mutate. Some go unnoticed for the affected individual's life. Others, like cancer causing mutations, are detrimental and occasionally deadly. These mutations are either categorized as somatic or hereditary and each effect individuals in different manners. Somatic mutations are acquired. This means they happen later in life, cannot be passed down, and only affect certain cells. Hereditary mutations are inherited from parents and can continue for generations. They affect almost every cell in the body and are with the affected individual for life. With androgen insensitivity the inheritance pattern is X-linked recessive making it hereditary and passed