More or Less Radio 4 now - prevalence of intersex

[Bittermints]

They're very good at this. Examining the common as redheads claim and the 1.7% claim.

That was an excellent discussion of intersex stats. Have just listened to it. I heard the 1.7% and thought it a very dodgy statistic. We have over 7000 patients and no more than 10 at a high estimate have an intersex condition. The 1 in1000 sounds much more realistic. It's not helpful for people with intersex conditions to be told their condition is really common and nearly 1 in 20 people has it. It's a form of gaslighting and minimalising their problems.

Just heard this on the Sunday repeat of More or Less. Blimey, the BBC have broadcast a programme in this area that firstly attempts balance and secondly isn't propaganda in favour of gender identity ideology.

and in another corridor of the BBC they're still quoting the 1.7% figure, "The UN Says...".

This bbc news item popped up on my facebook page:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/health-46843612/intersex-surgeries-is-it-right-to-assign-sex-to-a-baby

The facebook item had over 700 comments.

It was posted on 19th Jan. on facebook.

If you look at the BBC webpage you'll see a date of 14 Jan 2019. I think that the More or Less programme was actually in response to the Intersex surgeries: is it right to assign sex to a baby? video.

Now would be a good time for the BBC to correct their misinformation. I won't hold my breath though.

Nauticant, you're right. But the posting on facebook was on 19th, at 21:51 so someone didn't check! I'm not holding my breath either.

The statistics given on more or less are nothing new, others have defined intersex as having a lower prevalence of about 1 in 4000 to 5000.

The problem comes when we have poorly defined umbrella terms. For instance how do we define disabled? Is it just those with physical disabilities or does it include cognitive and mental health ones too? And how bad does a condition have to be to be classified as a disability? Do we include everyone who is diabetic, or those with dyslexic or people like me who have half a finger missing?

The deception creeps in when statistics are quoted without clarifying what definition is being used or when extreme cases are portrayed as being representative of the whole group.