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HandWiki. History of Intersex Surgery. Encyclopedia. Available online: https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/32308 (accessed on 20 September 2026).
HandWiki. History of Intersex Surgery. Encyclopedia. Available at: https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/32308. Accessed September 20, 2026.
HandWiki. "History of Intersex Surgery" Encyclopedia, https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/32308 (accessed September 20, 2026).
HandWiki. (2022, November 01). History of Intersex Surgery. In Encyclopedia. https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/32308
HandWiki. "History of Intersex Surgery." Encyclopedia. Web. 01 November, 2022.
History of Intersex Surgery
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The content is sourced from: https://handwiki.org/wiki/Biology:History_of_intersex_surgery

The history of intersex surgery is intertwined with the development of the specialities of pediatric surgery, pediatric urology, and pediatric endocrinology, with our increasingly refined understanding of sexual differentiation, with the development of political advocacy groups united by a human qualified analysis, and in the last decade by doubts as to efficacy, and controversy over when and even whether some procedures should be performed. Prior to the medicalization of intersex, Canon and common law referred to a person's sex as male, female or hermaphrodite, with legal rights as male or female depending on the characteristics that appeared most dominant. The foundation of common law, the Institutes of the Lawes of England described how a hermaphrodite could inherit "either as male or female, according to that kind of sexe which doth prevaile." Single cases have been described by legal cases sporadically over the centuries. Modern ideas of medicalization of intersex and birth defects can be traced to French anatomist Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (1805–1861), who pioneered the field of teratology. Since the 1920s surgeons have attempted to "fix" an increasing variety of conditions. Success has often been partial and surgery is often associated with minor or major, transient or permanent complications. Techniques in all fields of surgery are frequently revised in a quest for higher success rates and lower complication rates. Some surgeons, well aware of the immediate limitations and risks of surgery, feel that significant rates of imperfect outcomes are no scandal (especially for the more severe and disabling conditions). Instead they see these negative outcomes as a challenge to be overcome by improving the techniques. Genital reconstruction evolved within this tradition. In recent decades, nearly every aspect of this perspective has been called into question, with increasing concern regarding the human rights implications of medical interventions.

endocrinology teratology legal rights

References

  1. Young, HH (1937). Genital Abnormalities, Hermaphroditism, and Related Adrenal Diseases.. Baltimore: Williams and Wilkins. "This was the standard work on intersex conditions until the middle of the 20th century, and helped establish the reputation of Johns Hopkins." 
  2. Piaggio LA. Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia: Review from a Surgeon's Perspective in the Beginning of the Twenty-First Century. Front Pediatr. 2014;1:50. Published 2014 Jan 2. doi:10.3389/fped.2013.00050
  3. Penny R. (1982). "Disorders of the testes". In: Kaplan S, ed. Clinical Pediatric and Adolescent Endocrinology.. Philadelphia: Saunders. "An example of a now-obsolete recommendation to consider reassigning a boy with severe micropenis as a girl." 
  4. "A unified approach to early reconstructive surgery of the child with ambiguous genitalia". J Urol 138 (4 Pt 2): 1079–82. 1987. doi:10.1016/S0022-5347(17)43508-7. PMID 3656565. "A report from Hopkins from the mid-1980s, describing varied approaches for variations of feminizing surgery, including a case of sex reassignment for micropenis.".  https://dx.doi.org/10.1016%2FS0022-5347%2817%2943508-7
  5. Hendrick, M. (1993). "Is it a Boy or a Girl?". Johns Hopkins Magazine: 10–16. 
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  8. Money J, Ehrhardt AA. Man & Woman, Boy & Girl. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1972.
  9. Diamond, Milton; Sigmundson, HK (March 1997). "Sex reassignment at birth. Long-term review and clinical implications.". Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med 151 (3): 298–304. doi:10.1001/archpedi.1997.02170400084015. PMID 9080940. http://www.hawaii.edu/PCSS/biblio/articles/1961to1999/1997-sex-reassignment.html. Retrieved 15 May 2013. 
  10. Passerini-Glazel G (1999). "Editorial: feminizing genitoplasty". J Urol 161 (5): 1592–3. doi:10.1016/s0022-5347(05)68987-2. PMID 10210422. "Restatement of the classic surgeon's arguments that (1) complications are being reduced by newer techniques, and (2) that surgery should optimally be performed even earlier (by 2 months of age) to take advantage of the estrogenized state of the tissue in early infancy.".  https://dx.doi.org/10.1016%2Fs0022-5347%2805%2968987-2
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  13. "46,XY Intersex individuals: phenotypic and etiologic classification, knowledge of condition, and satisfaction with knowledge in adulthood". Pediatrics 110 (3): electronic pages, pp. e32. September 2002. doi:10.1542/peds.110.3.e32. PMID 12205282. http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/110/3/e32. "Between 1953 and the 1980s (i.e., all patients who were above 21 in 2000) 183 infants and children had been seen in the Hopkins pediatric endocrine clinic who had an XY karyotype and complete undervirilization, partial undervirilization (ambiguous genitalia), or micropenis. The 26 with complete undervirilization included 20 with complete androgen insensitivity and 6 with Swyer syndrome. All infants with complete undervirilization (i.e., female external genitalia) were raised as girls. Of the 43 with micropenis, 12 were reassigned as female and underwent feminizing surgery; 31 were raised as boys and treated with extra testosterone. Causes of partial undervirilization with ambiguity included defects of testosterone synthesis, partial gonadal dysgenesis, partial androgen insensitivity, Leydig cell hypoplasia, timing defects, true hermaphroditism, and multiple congenital anomalies. Of the 114 patients with ambiguity, 50 were raised as female (most with feminizing surgery) and 64 were raised as boys (some had surgery). They attempted to locate and survey all patients for outcome information. They located 73%, but 12% were developmentally delayed and 9% were deceased (2 from suicide). Of the 96 located, eligible adults, 78% consented to participate (18 women born with complete undervirilization, 18 women born with partial undervirilization, 21 men with partial virilization, 5 women born with micropenis, and 13 men born with micropenis). Roughly half of the patients had a satisfactory understanding of their condition; half wanted more.". 
  14. "Long-term perspectives for 46,XY patients affected by complete androgen insensitivity or congenital micropenis". Semin Reprod Med 20 (3): 297–304. 2000. doi:10.1055/s-2002-35376. PMID 12428209. "Survey of patients treated with older management, including 5 with micropenis reassigned and raised as women. Gender identity was concordant with sex of assignment in all. Women with CAIS were satisfied with genitalia, men and women who had had micropenis were universally dissatisfied, but sexual function was better in men than women. Outcomes suggest infant reassignment to female and surgery does not produce an improved adult satisfaction with sexual function.".  https://dx.doi.org/10.1055%2Fs-2002-35376
  15. Beck, Max. "Hermaphrodites with Attitude Take to the Streets". Hermaphrodites with Attitude. http://www.isna.org/books/chrysalis/beck. 
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  17. Colapinto, John (2000). As Nature Made Him: the Boy who was Raised as a Girl (the popular account of David Reimer's failed sex reassignment). New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-019211-2. 
  18. Diamond, Milton (September 1999). "Pediatric management of ambiguous and traumatized genitalia". Journal of Urology 162 (3 Pt 2): 1021–8. doi:10.1016/S0022-5347(01)68054-6. PMID 10458424. Archived from the original on 2007-06-22. https://web.archive.org/web/20070622210436/http://www.hawaii.edu/PCSS/online_artcls/intersex/management.html. 
  19. "Discordant sexual identity in some genetic males with cloacal exstrophy assigned to female sex at birth". N Engl J Med 350 (4): 333–41. 2004. doi:10.1056/nejmoa022236. PMID 14736925. "Eight of 14 genetic males who were born with exstrophy and unsalvageable penis, assigned and raised as females, spontaneously reassigned themselves to male sex as they grew up. This outcome suggests XY infants with exstrophy but normal testes should not be raised as females.".  http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=1421517
  20. "The Rights of the Intersex Child". nocirc.org. National Organization of Circumcision Information Resource Centers (NOCIRC). 2007-02-13. http://www.nocirc.org/intersexed/. Retrieved 2007-09-14. 
  21. Creighton, Sarah; Minto, Catherine (2001-12-01). "Managing intersex: most vaginal surgery in childhood should be deferred". British Medical Journal 323 (7324): 1264–5. doi:10.1136/bmj.323.7324.1264. PMID 11731376.  http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=1121738
  22. Meyer-Bahlburg, H.F.L.; Migeon, C.J.; Berkovitz, G.D.; Gearhart, J.P.; Dolezal, C.; Wisniewski, A.B. (2004). "Attitudes of Adult 46,XY Intersex Persons to Clinical Management Policies". The Journal of Urology 171 (4): 1615–1619. doi:10.1097/01.ju.0000117761.94734.b7. ISSN 0022-5347. PMID 15017234. https://semanticscholar.org/paper/3d09dd261d937f90b571f26a3929f36f06713356. 
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  29. Dreger, Alice (April 3, 2015). "Malta Bans Surgery on Intersex Children". The Stranger SLOG. http://www.thestranger.com/blogs/slog/2015/04/03/22001053/malta-bans-surgery-on-intersex-children. 
  30. Creighton, Sarah M.; Michala, Lina; Mushtaq, Imran; Yaron, Michal (January 2, 2014). "Childhood surgery for ambiguous genitalia: glimpses of practice changes or more of the same?". Psychology and Sexuality 5 (1): 34–43. doi:10.1080/19419899.2013.831214. ISSN 1941-9899. http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1415959/1/Creighton_Childhood_surgery.pdf. 
  31. Jones, Tiffany; Hart, Bonnie; Carpenter, Morgan; Ansara, Gavi; Leonard, William; Lucke, Jayne (2016). Intersex: Stories and Statistics from Australia. Cambridge, UK: Open Book Publishers. ISBN 978-1-78374-208-0. http://oii.org.au/wp-content/uploads/key/Intersex-Stories-Statistics-Australia.pdf. Retrieved 2016-08-29. 
  32. Mouriquand, Pierre D. E.; Gorduza, Daniela Brindusa; Gay, Claire-Lise; Meyer-Bahlburg, Heino F. L.; Baker, Linda; Baskin, Laurence S.; Bouvattier, Claire; Braga, Luis H. et al. (2016). "Surgery in disorders of sex development (DSD) with a gender issue: If (why), when, and how?". Journal of Pediatric Urology 12 (3): 139–149. doi:10.1016/j.jpurol.2016.04.001. ISSN 1477-5131. PMID 27132944.  https://dx.doi.org/10.1016%2Fj.jpurol.2016.04.001
  33. Feder, Ellen K.; Dreger, Alice (May 2016). "Still ignoring human rights in intersex care". Journal of Pediatric Urology 12 (6): 436–437. doi:10.1016/j.jpurol.2016.05.017. ISSN 1477-5131. PMID 27349148. https://zenodo.org/record/894954. 
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  49. "'A baby cannot provide ... consent': Calif. lawmakers denounce infant intersex surgeries" (in en). https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/baby-cannot-provide-consent-calif-lawmakers-denounce-infant-intersex-surgeries-n903686. 
  50. "Denmark and Germany: Authorities failing to protect intersex children from invasive surgery" (in en). https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2017/05/danish-and-german-intersex-children-scarred-by-invasive-surgery/. 
  51. "The rights of children born intersex" (in en). https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2017/05/intersex-rights/. 
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