Human Rights Watch: “I Want to be Like Nature Made Me”Medically Unnecessary Surgeries on Intersex Children in the US
Published July 25, 2017.

Reader Advisory: This report contains graphic descriptions of traumatic experiences, often affecting children.

SUMMARY
Intersex people in the United States are subjected to medical practices that can inflict irreversible physical and psychological harm on them starting in infancy, harms that can last throughout their lives. Many of these procedures are done with the stated aim of making it easier for children to grow up “normal” and integrate more easily into society by helping them conform to a particular sex assignment. The results are often catastrophic, the supposed benefits are largely unproven, and there are generally no urgent health considerations at stake. Procedures that could be delayed until intersex children are old enough to decide whether they want them are instead performed on infants who then have to live with the consequences for a lifetime.