condition name:
(please note that this is a standardised title. Intersex is not a mental health issue).
intersex
condition information:
The tendency to categorise all people as either 'female' or 'male' means that people with intersex variations may face social stigma and discrimination, often due to a lack of awareness about such variations. This can be made worse when parents do not fully understand a child's intersex variation due to a lack of clear and affirming information.
Importantly, having an intersex variation is not a mental health issue, but mental health issues may arise due to social and cultural ideas about sex. Additional mental health issues can emergeas a result of unnecessary surgeries and hormone treatments that may be imposed on infants and young people throughout childhood and adolescence.
Intersex is an umbrella term used to describe a wide range of variations and diversity. Children born with intersex variations have chromosomes, genitals, and/or reproductive organs that do not fit into narrow ideas of what constitutes 'male' or 'female'.
