The Medicalization of Intersex People

The Medicalization of Intersex People

In order to discuss the Medicalization of Intersex people and the social and individual impact that this creates first it is essential to understand what Medicalization means. Medicalization is in the word’s of Peter Conrad the “…process by which nonmedical problems become defined and treated as medical problems, usually in terms of illnesses or disorders.” Medicalization impacts many different “non-medical problems” as Conrad says, although it could also be argued that even defining these varying circumstances as problems is limiting in of itself. The next component that needs to be outlined to properly discuss this topic is the term Intersex and it's meaning specifically. An excerpt out of the article: From Social Construction to Social Justice: Transforming How We Teach about Intersexuality, gives a simple and poignant example: “Intersex is technically defined as a group of medical conditions that involve “congenital anomaly of the reproductive and sexual system” . Within this one phrase we can see that even in this definition there are signs of the medicalization of intersex people with use of words such as “medical conditions”.

Health Amongst Intersex People

As said in the aforementioned paragraph one of the essential components when it comes to defining instances of medicalization are that the circumstances in the first-place need to be non medical issues. In order to examine this definition, we need to look at reasons why intersexuality should not be identified as a medical problem. Speaking specifically to the Western Medical community since around mid 20th century according to David Rubin, Intersex has been viewed as a “… psychological emergency that requires immediate surgical and hormonal “correction”…intersex bodies are pathologized and medicalized not because of genuine health concerns but because intersexuality threatens cultural ideals of sexual dimorphism and binary gender.” In fact not only does intersexuality not result in health problems as a side effect but there is a lengthily record of the medicalization of intersex bodies via unnecessary surgeries (performed on un-consenting children) causing a plethora of medical and sexual problems later in life. In other words, the health problems associated with intersex bodies is due to the unnecessary and unethical medical interventions in the form of medicalization.

Given that this is the case it is safe to say that intersexuality is not a medical problem, it is in a simplified term a way to generally describe someone who’s biological sex does not fall on the binary spectrum of male or female but instead has some qualities of both, which is demonstrated in a variety of ways. Just as there are differences between living with a biologically female body or a biologically male body there are certainly differences with living with an intersex body. However, the only problems associated with it are more to do with the stigmatization surrounding it and therefore discrimination and medicalization as a result.

Medical Rights

One of the core concepts that comes up when discussing the medicalization of Intersex children is the unethical practices and child abuse that follows this form of medicalization. It is well documented within the medical community that historically and presently when it comes to intersex individuals the western medical community has viewed the bodies of intersex people as a problem that needs to be fixed. However even the peramiters that define what counts as intersex is bound by arbitrary terms. Some of these terms can be anything from penis length to clitoris size. These measurements have been given made up values which decide whether a baby seemingly has a “medical problem” or not. If they don’t fit into one particular medically created template then the medical communities protocol is to perform not just unnecessary (in terms of the person’s health) but actually damaging, often traumatizing surgeries. What makes all of this even more unethical however is the ways in which many of these surgeries have been carried out. Most of the surgeries and medical interventions are performed with not just a lack of consent from the individuals but also with a lot of deception. Many of the surgeries where the individuals are older, they are lied to about the surgeries with misleading or incomplete information, told perhaps that it is (surgery) for something unrelated to their gender and is necessary for their health. If they are babies when they receive the surgeries, they often have the information about their own health withheld from them with the idea that if they don’t know about the surgery they will fit better into their surgically adjusted sex.

De-stigmatization To Eradicate Medicalization

In order to eradicate the medicalization of intersexuality it is essential that the process of de-stigmatization is implemented. As mentioned in, From Social Construction to Social Justice: Transforming How We Teach about Intersexuality, de-stigmatization and discussions around intersexuality cannot be used as means to end within the LGBTQ community which sometimes uses intersex individuals as example to eradicate binary gender constructs. Although the desire to break down binary gender concepts is a good one using intersexuality to achieve this does not help the intersex community and perhaps even perpetuates some of the stigmatization surrounding the community. Creating a safe space for intersexual people by discussing intersexuality as just another option of biological sex rather than a point of intrigue and also not expecting that they should want to reveal their biological sex is incredibly important. The goal of de-stigmatization is not to pressure people to reveal that they are intersex (unless that is what they want) but rather to make the world a safe place for intersex individuals so that they are not seen by society and the medical community as having a disease that needs to be fixed with unethical practices.

References

Conrad, Peter. “Medicalization and Social Control.” Vol. 18, 1992, pp. 209–232., www.jstor.org.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/stable/2083452. Accessed 26 Mar. 2018.

Conrad, Peter. “The Shifting Engines of Medicalization.” Vol. 46, no. 1, 2005, pp. 3–14., www.jstor.org.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/stable/4147650. Accessed 8 Apr. 2018.

Hsu, Stephanie. “Ethnicity and the Biopolitics of Intersex in Jeffrey Eugenides's ‘Middlesex.’” Vol. 36, no. 3, 2011, pp. 87–110., www.jstor.org.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/stable/23035264. Accessed 26 Mar. 2018.

Koyama, Emi, and Lisa Weasel. “From Social Construction to Social Justice: Transforming How We Teach about Intersexuality.” Vol. 30, no. 3/4, 2002, pp. 169–178., www.jstor.org.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/stable/40003252. Accessed 26 Mar. 2018.

Rubin, David A. “Provincializing Intersex: US Intersex Activism, Human Rights, and Transnational Body Politics.” Vol. 36, no. 3, 2015, pp. 51–83., doi:10.5250/fronjwomestud.36.3.0051. Accessed 26 Mar. 2018.