"I Want to Be Like Nature Made Me" : Medically Unnecessary Surgeries on Intersex Children in the US / ed. by Anne Tamar-Mattis ... [et al.]

A. Tamar-Mattis, A. Ittelson, S. Fraser

Intersex people in the United States are subjected to medical practices that can inflict irreversible physical and psychological harm on them starting in infancy, harms that can last throughout their lives. Many of these procedures are done with the stated aim of making it easier for children to grow up "normal" and integrate more easily into society by helping them conform to a particular sex assignment. After decades of debate, there is mounting evidence such procedures inflict physical and psychological harm that can last a lifetime. In this report, based on interviews with intersex adults, parents of intersex children, and medical practitioners working with intersex people, interACT and Human Rights Watch document the fall-out from that medical paradigm, and the failure of the medical community to regulate itself effectively. It documents the shame and stigma the surgical paradigm has inflicted on intersex people, the fear and confusion parents face when seeking care for their children, and the persistence of medically unnecessary surgeries on intersex children too young to consent.