Intersex Conditions and Gender Identity

Intersex Conditions Intersex is a condition where an individual is born with sexual anatomy of both sexes. For example a female may be born with larger genital the looks like male genital and a male may be born with small genital that looks like female genital. This condition is caused by the irregularities of both sex chromosome and prenatal hormone. There are many variation associated with intersex for example some women with intersex condition do not have ovaries or they do not have clitoris or labia. Some men with this condition discover they do not have testes and yet some individual have internal and external structure of both male and female. In some cases intersex anatomy do not show up at birth until an individual reaches puberty and discovered to be infertile and some individual live with this condition without telling anyone. There are many disorders that are associated with intersex, some are caused by unmatched sex chromosome and some are caused by irregular prenatal hormone production. Children with intersex should be treated in open, shame-free, supportive environment where an attempt can be made to connect these children with adults who are intersex and with parents who have intersex children so they may provide each other with peer support. When intersex children grow up the can chose their gender identity depending on what role they are most comfortable with in terms of the behavior and lifestyle that they feel are most consistent with their gender identity. Once the children are mature enough to make their own decision and comfortable with their gender identity they can decide to have surgery perform so that their physical appearance is congruent with their gender identity. Before the surgery, the intersex children should be introduce to other intersex children who may or may not have the surgery to get more information by discussing with these patients and to get fully informed. Gender Identity Gender identity is how an individual identify himself or herself socially. Biological male who have penis may want to socialize as a woman. Biological female with vagina may choose to socialize as a man. For example a transsexual male with penis may feel like she is a woman who is trap in a man’s body. She likes to socialize as woman and desire the appearance of a woman and some may undergo sex reassignment to achieve their gender identity. The same is true for transsexual female with vagina who wants to socialize as man and desire the masculine and appearance of a man and some may also undergo hormonal therapy to achieve their gender identity. In some cases of intersex in which an individual posses sexual anatomy of both sexes. This may or may not appear at birth, many intersex children are not sure about their gender identity until they grow up and mature enough to make decision who they really want to be. These children require tremendous support from other intersex adult to help them get through the experience and to find their true identity based on their behavior and lifestyle that are consistent with their identity. There are also transgender who are individual that likes to socialize as the opposite sex. For example a man who is married to a woman may like to socialize as woman and cross dressing. There are also women who like to socialize as man and desire masculine qualities. Another type of gender is transvestites who are individual that like to cross dress for the purpose of achieving sexual arousal. As we now know gender identity is the gender role or behavior that an individual chose to participate regardless of their sexes. This is not the same and not to be confuse with sexual orientation. Sexual orientation is the sex that each individual is attracted to for example a man is attracted to a woman, a man is attracted to another man, or a woman is attracted to another woman.