How many people are born intersex?
The number of intersex individuals is difficult to determine. The Intersex Society of North America claims states that 1 in 100 babies have some sort of variation of the external genitalia from the “standard male and female” but are not labeled as intersex. Also, about 1 in 1,000 babies are born with ambiguous external genitalia. In the U.S., intersex people are forced to be legally male or female. Most of these individuals have genital surgery performed on them following birth, to “normalize” their genitals, sometimes without the knowledge or consent of the parents. Many intersex individuals do not have ambiguous external genitalia, but may have ambiguous or differing internal genitalia, sex chromosomes, gonadal sex or hormonal sex. Some of these individuals may not even realize they are intersex until puberty and the individual never reaches menarche, testes descend, or another unexpected physiological phenomenon occurs. It is also possible for some intersex people to never know or t
