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Intersexuality is the state of a living thing of a gonochoristic species whose sex chromosomes, genitalia, and/or secondary sex characteristics are determined to be neither exclusively male nor female. An intersex organism may have biological characteristics of both the male and female sexes.[1] Intersexuality is the term adopted by medicine during the 20th century applied to human beings whose biological sex cannot be classified as either male or female.[2][3][4] Intersexuality is also the word adopted by the identitary-political movement, to criticize medical protocols in sex assignment and to claim the right to be heard in the construction of a new one.[5]
Research in the late twentieth century has led to a growing medical consensus that diverse intersex physicalities are normal, but relatively rare, forms of human biology. Perhaps the most prominent researcher, Milton Diamond, stresses the importance of care in selection of language related to intersexuality.
The terms hermaphrodite and pseudohermaphrodite, introduced in the 19th century, are now considered problematic as hermaphrodism refers to people who are both completely male and completely female, something not possible.[7][dubious – discuss] The phrase ‘”ambiguous genitalia'” refers specifically to genital appearance, but not all intersex conditions result in atypical genital appearance.[8]
The Intersex Society of North America and intersex activists have moved to eliminate the term “intersex” in medical usage, replacing it with “disorders of sex development” (DSD) in order to avoid conflating anatomy with identity.[9] Members of The Lawson Wilkins Pediatric Endocrine Society[10] and the European Society for Paediatric Endocrinology[11] accepted this term in their “Consensus statement on management of intersex disorders” published in the Archives of Disease in Children[12] and in Pediatrics.[13]
The term is defined by congenital conditions in which development of chromosomal, gonadal, or anatomical sex is atypical. However, this has been met with criticism from other activists who question a disease/disability model and advocate no legal definition of sexes, no gender assignments, no legal sex on birth certificates, and no official sexual orientation categories.[14] This particular view has also been cited by some as not only questionable, but offensive to intersex individuals, many of whom do not feel there is “something wrong with them”. Alternatives to labeling these as “disorders” have been suggested, including “variations of sex development”.[15]
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