Surgery On Infants to Correct Atypical Genitals Posted: 07-31-07 13:55pm
According to this article 1 in 2,000
babies are born with atypical genitals,
most common being large clitoris (over
3/8" at birth) or small penises (under 1"
at birth).
"One out of every 2,000 babies is born
with genitals that don't elicit the
automatic "It's a girl!" or "It's a boy!"
Many more have genitals that are perceived
as "masculinized" or "feminized," although
the child's sex is not in doubt.
The American Academy of Pediatrics
recommends surgically altering these
children between the ages of six weeks and
15 months to fashion their bodies into
something closer to perfection."
"When a baby is born today with genitals
that are ambiguous, a team of surgeons,
pediatric endocrinologists, and social
workers scramble to relieve what is called
a "psychosocial emergency." Tests are done
and orifices explored to determine as
nearly as possible the baby's "true sex."
Then, in almost all cases, doctors perform
surgery to make the child look more like a
girl, because, they say, the surgery
required is easier to perform than trying
to make the child look like a boy."
Weird, I never heard about this in school.
When my daughter was born, the
anesthesiologist said "IT's a Boy!" Then
I said "No it's not!" (Somehow I knew I
was having a girl. Then he said "Nope,
your'e right, it;s a girl!" I guess girls
are often born with swollen genitalia due
to the hormones of pregnancy. So i guess
I would say no, i would not alter my
child's genitals unless there was a defect
which inhibited their proper function.
But not just because they looked
"ambiguous".
Thanks! I should look into this more, as
I did not know they were doing thses kinds
of things.
The ISNA's Recommendations (Intersex
Society of North America):
"Surgeries done to make the genitals look
“more normal” should not be performed
until a child is mature enough to make an
informed decision for herself or
himself."
http://www.isna.org/faq
/patient-centered
The Bruce/Brenda Reimer story, incase you
aren't familiar:
http://www.reason.com
/news/show/33586.html
"Born Bruce Reimer in 1965, David suffered
a botched circumcision when he was eight
months old. Most of his penis was burned
off, and reconstructive surgery was too
primitive at the time to restore it. Dr.
John Money, a sexologist at Johns Hopkins
University, persuaded Reimer's parents to
have their son completely castrated and
raised as a girl."
I am unsure as to what the current
official stance of the AAP (American
Academy of Pediatrics) or the CPS
(Canadian Pediatric Society) on the issue
is, but regardless of what the official
stance is there will still be medical
professionals who will make
recommendations (or even lie to or coerce
parents) against that official stance.
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Jules
Supporter
Joined: 19 Aug 2006 Posts: 3752 Location: Merrie Englande, UK
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Posted: 08-01-07 01:58am
I've thought about this before because
I've read so many stories of people who
were raised as the wrong sex. I think
that if my child were to be born with both
male and female genitals then I would
request a test to find out what sex my
child was genetically and then bring my
child up as that sex but without
any surgery. In the case where I got it
wrong, the child could then 'become' the
correct sex more easily. Of course, it
would be a huge thing to deal with if the
child wanted to be the other sex but at
least his/her genitals won't have been
irreparably damaged.
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kaiteo
Extremely EHEALTHy
Joined: 03 Oct 2007 Posts: 1574 Location: Cold, Maine
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Posted: 10-14-07 10:45am
I was born breech and with genetailia so
swollen the doctors said I was a boy. It
took them a little while to realize I
wasn't.
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Tylanas
Especially EHEALTHy
Joined: 13 Jul 2005 Posts: 12985
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Posted: 10-14-07 11:52am
Yeah, unless the defect would prevent
proper urination, I would refuse to have
them altered at birth. The genetic testing
is a great idea; and I'd probably follow
that path.
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Georgia59
Supporter
Joined: 11 Apr 2007 Posts: 5542 Location: Along the Mississippi, USA
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Posted: 10-14-07 13:19pm
Some girls are born with clits so large
that they look like little penises-
permanently, not just swollen.
In that case it's a tough one. I want to
say that it would be better for the girl
to fix it (given that it really was simply
a misformed part, not an intersex
condition) but then that leads me to
think.... What if we just 'fixed' every
funny looking part on every baby? Where
would the uniqueness be?
