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re: re: *My* definition of intersex Feb. 12th, 2005 5:50pm
Hi Aimee- was hoping you'd chime in! CAH certainly isnt the worst condition out there. I once told someone if you're gonna have a rare, strange disease CAH is the way to go. There's so many other horrible conditions out there. As a paraniod parent, tho, I often worry about my child's self image. I was diagnosed with diabetes when I was in high school and it did nasty things to self esteem. Anything I can do to spare my child that, I will try to do. Heh- I can only hope I will succeed and not give myself an ulcer in the process!
Anyway, I digress. In my previous post, I defined intersex as "when the external phenotype does not match the genotype". It doesn't mean that I really like the term that much when applied to CAH. Broken down into its root components:
'inter' = between, 'sex' = sex (of course!)
So, taken literally, intersex means neither male or female, but something in between. Based on it's root components, I think intersex would be better defined as:
when chromosomes denote neither a female or male genotype
A girl with CAH is still a girl, regardless of what her external genitalia look like. She's not between anything! She has female reproductive organs, she has XX chromosomes, and she has a clitoris (even if it appears to be a penis) I hate to say it, but I almost prefer the term pseudo-hermaphrodite when referring to virilized girls.
But this is just my opinion! Anyone else like to take a shot at redefining intersex?
