News - The Times has reported that the UK's NHS no longer assume that the correct procedure is to immediately operate on a child born with ambiguous genitalia. A recent Scottish survey indicates that around 1 in 4000 babies are born intersex, but historically, and still in other countries, surgeons opt to 'adjust' the gender in an attempt to 'normalise' them, sometimes without the parents knowledge. Any rushed procedure can only lead to future difficulties, but with no follow-up treatment this often goes unreported.

Sarah Creighton, a gynaecologist at University College Hospital, tracked down 'normalised' patients, and those left to develop naturally. Her groundbreaking study in The Lancet found that those who were left as nature made them fared as well, if not better, than those who had been 'normalised'. Being yourself was more important than being like others. Creighton's findings were to start a British-led revolution: first, telling parents the truth about their child's ambiguous-looking sex and, even more radical, saying that perhaps he or she could stay that way

For most parents, the first question (if they don't think they know already) is - boy or girl? But for the past ten years, British doctors have been able to reply 'We don't know yet'.

"It can take days or weeks to determine the sex - the limit on naming a child is six weeks and sometimes that has to be extended," Creighton says. "We advise parents to say the baby's poorly, they are awaiting tests. All children are then allocated boy or girl, but much more controversial is: do you proceed to surgery? That is hard to undo. We tend to think that surgery is all-powerful and by having surgery you have a cure. These aren't conditions that you can cure."

This means there is now a generation of pubescent intersex children, with changing bodies, who can decide whether they would like to identify with either (or neither) gender.

"It is now as adolescents that they are getting the full information. It's a stormy time for all teenagers, but it's really difficult for them," Creighton says.

Intersex issues have garnered lots of media attention recently in the light of the Caster Semenya case. The International Association of Athletics Federation is currently debating the athletes sex, with a mind to possibly strip her of a medal. Which is disgusting. Gender testing was dismissed over ten years ago by other respectable athletics organisations as nonsense. Gender cannot be tested by genital examination or DNA. Fact. What then are the IAAF hoping to achieve?

I was recently chatting to the wonderful intersex photographer Del Legrace Volcano (who has an exhibition in Birmingham as part of their SHOUT festival). Del's opinion on the matter was that all athletes have extraordinary bodies to do what they do. Why should one more extraordinary body be vilified? If passport control can cope with 'unspecified' gender as a matter of policy, and they do, then why not sport?

There is no such thing as 'Male or Female' and it is society that has to learn to adapt to that - not an individual's body.

For the full Times article click here!

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