These are only a handful of examples; the intersex umbrella encompasses a wide variety of nuances.
What Happens When Someone Is Born Intersex?
Being intersex is a natural variation and not a disease or disorder.
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When a baby is born, the delivery doctor will assign it a legal sex.
However, theres growing activism and awareness around this topic.
In addition, intersex surgeries may result in significant scarring and fertility issues later in life.
Adults who struggle with infertility might also come to realize they are intersex after medical assessment and identification.
In some cases, a person might not ever realize that they are intersex.
This is more common when intersex presents through chromosomes or internal organs versus outward anatomy.
Intersex people may have a wide range of gender identities.
A person who is transgender has a gender identity that differs from their birth-assigned sex.
Intersex does not refer to a person’s internal sense of gender identity.
How theyexpress their gendermay vary and may or may not conform to their gender identity.
Additionally, just like non-intersex people, their sexualityas in who theyre attracted to sexuallycan trigger the gamut.
Research also indicates that there is no correlation between gender identity and sexuality.
How Common Is It to Be Intersex?
The answer here isnt so straightforward.
This is partly because much subjectivity comes into play in that delivery room and/or medical analysis.
The inverse is true regarding the size of a babys penis.
Theres also variance in opinion regarding how many chromosomal anomalies are required before an intersex call is made.
There are many more babies born with less obvious forms of anatomical variations.
This equates to about one or two people out of every 100.
Stigma about intersex people has decreased over the years as more medical professionalsand the general populationgain a better understanding.
However, people who are intersex still face bullying, discrimination, and stigmatization.
If you are intersex, connecting with others with similar experiences might be helpful.
We recommend joining a support group or community.InterAct Intersex Support and Advocacy Groupsare located across the globe.
This is not representative of the intersex spectrum.
In many cases, intersex people are infertile.
That said, whether an intersex person can reproduce depends on their specific situation.Intersex people canand dohave children.
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