What are Disorders of Sex Development (DSD)?
This term and its guidelines are used by medical doctors to describe and “help” intersex. Intersex individuals oppose its usage because their bodies are not disorders and it further pathologizes them. The DSD guidelines have been created by non-intersex people; intersex individuals have not been asked for their input, and they also have been ignored when protesting its current guidelines. The umbrella term clumps all intersex people together, who have various physiological differences and specific health needs are then overlooked. The only thing these intersex “disorders” have in common is that they disrupt the social and cultural assumption that only males and females should exist. The DSD guidelines are only concerned about gender (which is NOT a medical or biological phenomena, but instead a cultural one). They assure parents and doctors that the right gender can be chosen without consultation with the child, through the form of genital surgery, which most intersex strongly oppose.
