EuroPSI is a professional network to help service providers promote psychological well-being in people with variations in sex characteristics
Intersex/dsd information
Historically, the term ‘hermaphrodite’ was used to refer to the notion of ambiguous genitalia. It is based on a mythological concept that is impossible in human beings (a dual set of functioning male and female reproductive organs in one individual) but was adopted by medicine from the 1870s, before the science of anatomy revealed internal structures/functionality. The term ‘intersex’ was introduced in 1917 and was used in medicine alongside the hermaphrodite-based terminology until 2005. At that point a new system based on the term ‘disorders of sex development’ (DSD) was introduced at an invitation-only meeting in Chicago instigated by, and for (mainly) medical doctors. For further details of intersex and how it relates to the various forms of ‘hermaphroditism’ see http://www.aissg.org/21_overview.htm.
‘Intersex’ and ‘diverse sex development’ (dsd) are umbrella terms that refer to birth conditions whereby the anatomical, hormonal and/or genetic configuration do not fit easily within the typical parameters of male or female. A variety of possibilities falls under the intersex/dsd umbrellas, and under the sub-divisions that circumscribe specific medical diagnoses/conditions.
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Genital ‘ambiguity’ is only one of many possible features within ‘hermaphroditism’, intersex or DSD, all of which cover a wider population that includes, for example, XY- women with female-typical external genitalia. The hermaphrodite term was re-appropriated in the late 20th century by the now defunct Intersex Society of North America (ISNA) whose newsletter was for a while named ‘Hermaphrodites with Attitude’, and who also promoted ‘intersex’ as an identity to be proud of. Although DSD has now superseded the older nomenclature in medicine, this conceptualization of body differences as disorders has raised strong objections from people to whom the term refers. Many choose to retain the term ‘intersex’. Many do not identify with either, or even any, of the existing terms.
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EuroPSI recognises variations in sex characteristics as part of human diversity and interprets DSD as diverse sex development (often written in lower case to emphasise the focus on diversity not disorder: dsd).
For details of the various nomenclatures for individual diagnoses of sex development, see Table 1 and Table 2 in the Consensus Statement:
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/118/2/e488.full.pdf.
Values underpinning EuroPSI
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The difference-as-disease paradigm has sent medicine and psychology down the narrow path of locating the problem in the individual. Clinical interventions are performed to 'normalise' bodies to reinforce a binary sex embodiment. Nowadays, these interventions are supposed to be presented as a choice, but they are often experienced by service users as a clinical recommendation. EuroPSI provides a forum for engaging psychosocial knowledge in the context of intersex/dsd healthcare, This is an opportunity to re-think the role of biomedical approaches and disease-focused paradigms in intersex/dsd healthcare.
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