NORTH AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR PEDIATRIC AND ADOLESCENT GYNECOLOGY (NASPAG) Releases Position Statement Recommending Delay in Medically Unnecessary Surgeries on Intersex Infants and Minors.

The report, released yesterday, November 8, supports the decades-long call by intersex activists for bodily autonomy for intersex people. The position statement reads:

We believe in respecting the autonomy of the individual patient as well as providing ample support and guidance for the patient and family. All parents and affected patients should be actively encouraged to seek psychological counseling and peer support given the stress, confusion, and isolation that many experience. We believe that surgery alone does not address all the implications associated with DSD conditions. Some DSD conditions require early surgical intervention to optimize health and fertility. Ideally, if surgical interventions could be safely delayed, patients would have time to express their gender identity and to be actively involved in the decision making process. True informed consent or assent includes an accurate discussion of the options, benefits, known short and long term complications, expected pain and recovery, as well as need for reoperation. Finally, we believe that if there is a possibility for fertility, that this should be preserved and optimized.

We thank and congratulate NASPAG for joining intersex-led organizations around the world, including IC4E, and the increasing number of medical and human rights bodies that have condemned these surgeries, aka Intersex Genital Mutilation (IGM), listed below:

— the World Health Organization
— GLMA: Health Professionals Advancing LGBT Equality (formerly the Gay & Lesbian Medical Association)
— the American Medical Students Association (AMSA)
— the American Medical Association board of trustees
— three former US surgeons-generals (including one who was a pediatric endocrinologist)
— Physicians for Human Rights
— Amnesty International
— United Nations experts on human rights, torture, children’s, disability, women’s, and health rights
— Lambda Legal
— Human Rights Watch

http://c.ymcdn.com/sites/www.naspag.org/resource/resmgr/pdf’s/NASPAG_Statement_on_DSD_PES_.pdf