I am intersex: ask me anything.

[MsXY]

Happy to answer any questions, no matter how personal.

MsXY I don't know whether I ought to be proud to have foxed you, or feel like a weirdo for asking such a specific question.

I have adrenal ishoos myself, you see, so the thought just popped into my head.

Has being intersex caused you physical problems other than not going through puberty naturally?

Osteoporosis, although it is being managed. No day-to-day health problems, no.

And can you remember what it was like when you first found out? I assume it would be very difficult news to process as a teenager.

Horrendous. Being probed, prodded and poked as a teenager was pretty ghastly, plus all the awkwardness I already felt at not starting puberty like my peers. Then being told I would have to have a fairly major operation, and that I wouldn't be able to have children. Took me a long time to get over that period (no pun intended!).

I hope you had good support through that period of your life.

Not particularly. I was offered counselling, but it wasn't that helpful. Some people were kind, but I think most didn't know how to handle it.

MsXY I don't know whether I ought to be proud to have foxed you, or feel like a weirdo for asking such a specific question.

Haha! At least a specific question shows that you are informed. And I don't really think I'm in a position to call anyone weird...!

This is genuinely interesting and I'm really glad you've come forward.

That's good to hear.

Thank you so much for answering our questions.

Would Swyer syndrome, and other similar intersex conditions, be diagnosed earlier today?

This thread is brilliant thank you.

This is very enlightening OP. Thank you

How common / otherwise is intersex?

What did you tell your friends at school when you had the surgery?

Were you sensitively treated by the medical profession?

Op I think any questions I might have had were already answered but thank you for this thread, it's been very interesting and informative.

Don't have any questions right now so just place marking as I want to be educated, thank you for sharing

This is really interesting to read; thank you so much for this. As intersex is a rare condition and I suppose I would not even know if someone was intersex in my daily life unless I happened to know them really really well, it's amazingly interesting to hear about your experiences as we would not normally get this chance. I don't really have a specific question that you haven't already answered, just wanted to say thank you!

This is a really interesting thread, thanks OP.

Apologies if this comes across as goady, because I really don't mean it to, but what is your opinion on the attempt by some to put intersex under the "LGBT+" umbrella? I've worded that as carefully as I could!

I don't want to recommend this thread myself as it feels a bit egotistical, but if people think it's sufficiently useful to be worth putting in Classics (primarily so that it doesn't disappear) I would be happy for it to be moved there.

Were you good at sports while at school (or now, indeed)?

I ask because I remember a teacher telling us about intersex and how many competitors had to stop competing when gender testing was first introduced and their intersex condition became known.

Apologies if this comes across as goady, because I really don't mean it to, but what is your opinion on the attempt by some to put intersex under the "LGBT+" umbrella? I've worded that as carefully as I could!

Not goady. I'm not keen, as intersex is a biological condition which doesn't directly have anything to do with sexuality, or indeed psychology (although of course it has some psychological impact).

I am not gay, or gender-queer, or any of the other letters. Everyone should have equal rights, regardless of their chromosomes or sexuality, but I don't particularly want to be "out and proud" or to join a Pride march. (I have slightly mixed feelings about this, as I also don't think being intersex is something that should have to be hidden.) I think there's a fair amount of shame attached to being intersex, and there shouldn't be.

Sorry - forgot to put the quote in bold.

Thank you OP, very interesting.

A daughter of an old friend of my mums had an intersex baby. The birth announcement said something like - delighted to announce the safe arrival of baby Smith. Baby's gender is at the moment unclear.

I am assuming it was clear from the baby's genitals that they were intersex. They did chromosomal testing and found she was a girl, so she is being brought up as a girl. We are not close enough to them to know more, but it was really interesting.

But this thread no raises interesting questions about their baby. Which obviously I can't ask.

Were you good at sports while at school (or now, indeed)?

No, bloody hopeless, unfortunately! Certainly no biological advantage there in my case (either in terms of physique or hormones).

I'm still slim and toned in my 40s without doing much in the way of exercise, but I'm not sure whether that has anything at all to do with chromosomes or just other genetic factors.

Would Swyer syndrome, and other similar intersex conditions, be diagnosed earlier today?

Possibly. Obviously science has advanced a lot over the last few decades and I imagine karyotype tests are more sophisticated now. However in most cases without genital abnormalities you'd be unlikely to test before the age at which you'd expect puberty to occur, as there wouldn't be any symptoms to trigger medical investigations.

How common / otherwise is intersex?

I'm not sure, although I believe the incidence in the population of some sort of anomaly related to intersex conditions is higher than you would expect. However my specific condition is about 1/30,000, so pretty rare!

That should say 1:30,000.

Were you sensitively treated by the medical profession?

Hmm. Reasonably, I guess. For my first consultation there were three medical students which made the whole thing even more excruciating than it would have been otherwise. The first gynaecological examination was carried out without much preamble (by a man) and I was still a virgin at that point. The paediatrician described me as "morose" in my notes, which was a little churlish given how upsetting I found the whole process.

So not terrible, but probably could have been better.

What did you tell your friends at school when you had the surgery?

I told them the truth as I understood it at the time - that I was having my ovaries removed as they weren't functioning and could potentially become cancerous.