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Pete Thomson
Chief Communications Officer
American Medical Student Association
Email: [email protected]
AMSA Calls for Deferral of Gender “Normalizing” Surgeries on Intersex Children
STERLING, Virginia – October 26, 2017 – In recognition of Intersex Awareness Day, the American Medical Student Association (AMSA) joins the movement to end medically unnecessary, non-consensual genital “normalizing” surgeries performed on intersex children across the country—despite strong condemnation from the United Nations,1 the World Health Organization, 2 and Amnesty International. 3
Approximately 1 in 2,000 children are born with sex characteristics that differ enough from typical male or female anatomy to be at risk for non-consensual surgical procedures in infancy, including clitoral reduction, vaginoplasty, and gonadectomy. These surgeries—often meeting the criteria for female genital mutilation—are performed before a child can speak, walk, or provide any meaningful consent. A Human Rights Watch report 4 published earlier this year highlights the lasting harm of these early procedures, including chronic pain, loss of sexual sensation, psychological trauma, sterilization, and the risk that surgically assigned sex will not align with the individual’s gender identity. The vast majority of intersex children are born healthy, and these surgeries can safely be postponed until they are old enough to decide whether such procedures are wanted. What physicians and families need is psychological support to help them accept and support their children until they can make informed decisions for themselves.
AMSA joins GLMA: Health Professionals Advancing LGBT Equality, 5 three former U.S. Surgeons General, 6 and Physicians for Human Rights 7 in calling for the deferral of elective surgeries aimed at standardizing genitalia to male or female until intersex individuals are old enough to meaningfully participate in this life-changing decision and provide informed consent. As future physicians, we enter this profession to help others, not to cause harm. If current practices are harming patients, we have a responsibility not to uphold them out of inertia. The medical community must evolve—and we must ensure that education and training reflect ethical, patient-centered care.
AMSA recognizes the critical role medical education plays in shaping systemic changes in clinical practice. We call on medical schools and institutions to ensure that faculty are teaching evidence-based medicine and that future physicians are equipped with the knowledge and skills to care for intersex patients appropriately. To that end, AMSA urges the integration of mandatory, comprehensive training on intersex health into medical curricula—ensuring that intersex children are granted bodily autonomy and self-determination and that care is delivered ethically, equitably, and with full patient consent.
About the American Medical Student Association:
AMSA is the oldest and largest independent association of physicians-in-training in the United States. Founded in 1950, AMSA is a student-governed, non-profit organization committed to representing the concerns of physicians-in-training. To learn more about AMSA, our strategic priorities, or joining the organization, please visit us online.
1 United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Free & Equal, Fact Sheet: Intersex (2015).
2 World Health Organization. Eliminating forced, coercive or otherwise involuntary sterilization: an interagency statement (2014) [Statement of OHCHR, UN Women, UNAIDS, UNDP, UNFPA, UNICEF and WHO].
3 Amnesty International, Policy statement on the rights of intersex individuals (2013).
4 Human Rights Watch, “‘I Want To Be Like Nature Made Me:’ Medically Unnecessary Surgery on Intersex Children in the US” (2017).
5 Jeremy Toler, Medical and Surgical Intervention of Patients with Differences in Sex Development (2016).
6 Joycelyn Elders et al., Re-thinking Genital Surgeries on Intersex Infants, Palm Center (2017).
7 Homer Venters, Unnecessary Surgery on Intersex Children Must Stop (2017).
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