What is the argument for using the term “DSD”?
First, “DSD” is considered an improvement over “intersex,” which named the whole person rather than a medical condition. Because the term “intersex” implied an identity rather than a condition, many “intersex” individuals–most of whom view themselves as ordinary men and women who happened to have been born with an unusual medical condition–never accepted the label. Supporters of “DSD” believe that the patients will be better served by naming the condition as a physical developmental issue than something that implies, in many people’s minds, a confusion or crisis of gender. For example, parents of newborn with an “intersex” condition might be led to believe that their child would suffer horrible fate due to being a gender outcast, and demand immediate surgeries to “normalize” the child’s genitalia; parents who are told that their child has a “DSD” might take the news better, as the problem is understood to be about physical development rather than about gender. Physicians may also be
