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re: so what does this "intersex" mean? Feb. 11th, 2005 5:07pm
What interesting comments you have made. I fully agree with your perception about how easy it is for the media to just slip in a dramatic headline or photo to help sell their mags/newspapers. I saw a program last year which was sensationally advertised for a week or so before it was aired. The program was about intersex (I think it was actually called Intersex) and the advert said something like "1 in ? amount (I don't remember the actual figure) of births result in babies born neither male nor female, but something in between" The program included conditions such as Kleinfelters, AIS (true intersex conditions) but also included a CAH baby girl. I was really angry at why they included CAH in an intersex documentary, because CAH is NOT an intersex condition and should not have even been mentioned.
Not only are we talking about ambiguous genitalia, but I think the word "intersex" is ambiguous in a sense. It depends how people choose to interpret it. I think the term "intersex" was used for CAH many, many years ago. Probably in times before genetic testing of the sex of a child was available. Nowadays, a CAH child can be genetically tested to see if they are XX (female) or XY (male), not intersex, which means in between the 2 sexes. A CAH person is either male or female, not in-between, therefore, NOT intersex. I think the problem lies with old terminology of the condition. Intersex should be re-written without including CAH. Afterall, in previous times, Downs Syndrome was known as Mongolism but nowadays, no-one uses that terminology.
