The Intersex Kids Are All Right? Diagnosis Disclosure and the Experiences of Intersex Youth

• In Event: 196 - Section on Sociology of Sex and Gender Paper Session. Children and Youth Troubling Sex and Gender

Abstract

Intersex is usually, albeit problematically, diagnosed and treated at birth or during adolescence, yet we know relatively little about the experiences of intersex youth. We do, however, know that a generation ago it was common practice for doctors to withhold the diagnosis from their minor intersex patients, and they encouraged parents to do the same. Doctors feared a child’s gender identity would be disrupted if they were informed that they were born with a body that defied sex and gender binaries. Relying on data from 16 intersex youths between the ages of 11-25, with half under the age of 18, we argue intersex kids more positively experience intersex than earlier generations of intersex people. They find valuable peer support when they are young, and they are more open about their diagnosis with their non-intersex peers and teachers. We argue these findings are strong evidence of the importance of diagnosis disclosure. The young intersex people in our study are not deeply troubled by their diagnoses as doctors feared, despite learning about their diagnosis early in life. Our results encourage future studies that center the experiences of intersex youth, for we conclude that theorizing the lived experiences of intersex people is incomplete without their perspectives.

Authors

• Georgiann Davis, University of Nevada-Las Vegas

• Chris Wakefield, University of Nevada, Las Vegas