Medically Necessary Or 'Cruel'? Inside The Battle Over Surgery On Intersex Babies

When Kimberly Zieselman was 41, she got hold of her medical records from Massachusetts General Hospital. What she found was shocking.

The words "male pseudo hermaphrodite" were written on her chart.

Zieselman discovered she was born with XY chromosomes. Until that moment, she had no idea she was born intersex, an umbrella term used to describe people born with male and female anatomical characteristics.

As a teenager, Zieselman came to discover, doctors had performed surgery on her reproductive organs in an effort to conform her anatomy to fit one mold — a move that had serious psychological ramifications for her later on in life, she said, and that was done without her complete, informed consent.

Like, Zieselman, many intersex adults who underwent procedures as babies have dealt with painful consequences later in life. Now 53, Zieselman has become a part of a growing movement within the intersex community speaking out against surgeries performed on intersex babies. Unless surgery is medically necessary, activists say, doctors should not interfere. Some activists are lobbying their state governments to pass legislation to ban surgeries that are medically unnecessary – such legislation has already been proposed in California and Connecticut.

More