#intersex research

[interactyouth]

RTI International, a not-for-profit research organization working with the U.S. Census Bureau, is looking for adults (ages 18 and over) to give their reactions and opinions about questions in a national survey. They are recruiting participants for one more week and hoping to hear from intersex adults and families with intersex kids!

The interview will be conducted online using a secure video conferencing app and will take about 60 minutes. RTI will provide $40 to each eligible person who participates in the 60-minute interview.

[intersexcat-tboy]

Half the sources I had for AGAB terminology history are no longer available due to Google's preview library books thing deciding to not show me the previews, how am I supposed to do any research around here without having to screenshot everything what do I do abt the ones I didn't get screenshots of before it became unavailable 😭

[intersex-awareness]

via interACT: 5 Intersex People on Growing Up with Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia

What Is Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia?

Congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) is the most common form of Intersex DSD, an inherited disorder of the adrenal glands that can affect both boys and girls. The adrenal glands are located above the kidneys and produce three types of hormones: Cortisol, Aldosterone, and Androgens.

Cortisol, which regulates energy, blood pressure and blood sugar and helps us recover from a sudden illness

Aldosterone, which governs the amount of salt and water in the body. Androgens, a group of hormones which control the development of male characteristics

People with CAH cannot properly make cortisol and in some cases, are unable to produce aldosterone. They also produce too much of some androgens, such as testosterone and 17-hydroxyprogesterone. These hormone imbalances can lead to serious illness, atypical genitalia, early puberty, growth concerns and other problems.

[wc-confessions]

wtf is "intersex" and why are people shouting that certain cats (or sometimes ALL CATS??) are it???? Is this a gender thing that I'm ignorant of? Cuz that's cool I'd be happy to learn- but google says intersex relates to the actual physical body parts, and I'm just- Why do people care about this??????

Gender is one thing- affirming that shit correctly is SUPER important and I love the different hc's and interpretations there in ALL fandoms tbh, not just wc. But the actual physical body parts- how is that relevant. Why does anyone care. What are you using that info for. Why are people thinking about different body parts for these cats????.... Like why does a calico like Redtail HAVE to be intersex- does that mean something OTHER than Redtail having both male and female body parts??????? AND WHY IS THAT IN MY HEAD. I've never heard of an intersex pet cat in reality, even after working at the vet, is this just a genetics thing????

Like sure being able to have children can sometimes distinguish a character in terms of whether they will adopt or carry kits- but otherwise... why do people care what's swinging between the legs? What value is that info? Are these people DRAWING GENITALS OR SOMETHING??????

(Sorry if this ask is kinda iffy. I 100% understand if this ask gets deleted)

male calico cats are all considered intersex. the calico coat pattern is directly linked to two x chromosomes, which is why most calicos are usually female. male calicos have the xxy chromosomes which makes them intersex. redtail is intersex.

-mod ashensky

[ipso-faculty]

Compiling some terms/posts useful for people questioning if intersex

Note: If a definition in is in quotes, the source material it is quoted from is linked to by the relevant term.

Highly relevant terms

Extersex - "[A] term for those who do not know whether they are dyadic or intersex. It could be because one feels as though they might be some form of intersex, but are unable to medically confirm it, or cannot confirm what intersex variation it is. It may also be for those who have a variation that may be considered intersex, but are uncertain if they want to identify as intersex." - @themogaidragon

Inter-Questioning - "a term for anyone who is questioning if they’re intersex, for any reason. (Whether it’s due to one’s physical body, familial experiences that imply one is, or possibly simply a mental feeling that one is intersex.)" - @eldorr

Quoisex - "[An] umbrella term for anyone who doesn't quite understand their sex or doesn't want to define their sex." - LGBTQIA+ Wiki Note: I understand this as more general than extersex, and would include people questioning if altersex. See the wiki entry for subtypes (quoigonadal, quoichest, etc)

Altersex - "An umbrella term to describe having or wanting primary or secondary sex traits/characteristics that do not align with the binary sex model that a significant portion of society has adopted. It is primarily used by those who are not intersex and are trans+ and wish to or transition specifically to have a body that does not fit the aforementioned sex model." -@intersex-questions Note: Being altersex does not make somebody intersex. I include it because many people questioning their intersex status realize this is what they're looking for.

Anisohormonal - "Aniso (unequal/uneven) + hormonal (relating to hormones). An individual who has an imbalance of hormones for any number of reasons. Such individuals may or may not also be intersex." - @sproutflags Note: includes non-intersex variations such as diabetes.

Subtypes of intersex people

Note: In my experience most people questioning if they're intersex have a hormonal intersex variation like PCOS, so I'm skewing towards this accordingly.

Dysgonadal - "[having] dysfunctional gonads. This includes agonadal (no gonads) and hypogonadal. Also known as gonadal agenesis/dysgenesis, dyssex and nullogonadal/asexed (null sex or avaginal/aphallia)." - @arco-pluris Note: contrasted with eugonadal - "people with functional gonads (reproductive cells). Includes hypergonadal (hyperfunctional gonads)"

Interhormonal - "Someone who is intersex and anisohormonal and/or feels that being intersex has impacted their identity as anisohormonal in some way and/or that their identity as anisohormonal has impacted their identity as intersex in some way." - @sproutflags

Intermeer - "a term used to describe all intersex variations that are caused by an overproduction of horomones (testosterone, estrogen, or both.)" - LGBTQIA+ Wiki Variations include: AES, FMPP, PCOS. Part of The Autre System for categorizing intersex variations.

Intermindre - "a term used to describe all intersex variations that are caused by a lack of horomones (testosterone, estrogen, or both.)" Note: The wiki lists AIS and EIS as examples although they are not due to a lack of hormones, but rather a lack of sensitivity to them. Part of The Autre System for categorizing intersex variations. See the wiki for more subtypes. Thank you to anon asker who pointed out the AIS/EIS issue.

Mesosex - "[A] person who has an intersex variation, but one which does not conform to perisex (non-intersex) ideas of what intersex is. For example, people who have intersex traits that are considered "mild", or who have variations such as PCOS Hyperandrogenism and Poland Syndrome." - @ipso-faculty

More intersex terminology

Intersex Terminology Masterpost by @intersexfairy

Edits: - 2023-12-13: corrected AIS mischaracterized as lack of hormones, ty to anon for correction - 2023-12-13: added interdynamic - 2023-12-20: added inter-questioning, thank you @fazbears-horror-attraction for sharing it! - 2023-12-21: removed interdynamic. Apparently "secondary sex" means something entirely different in omegaverse. Ty to anon for correction.

[jewish-sideblog]

I think we really fucked up as a society when we started using the word “ignorant” as an insult and started conflating it with “bigot”. Ignorance is a state of being unaware or undereducated. Which means that ignorance is not a failing of the ignorant! We cannot expect that any decent-minded person has both the resources and the capacity to educate themselves on important topics, especially if they might not even know those topics exist yet.

[intersex-support]

just realized that this blog has now been around for five years, which is pretty incredible. i think we've gotten a lot better at answering asks though since 2019 lmao. through the years there's been a lot of different mods who all contributed so much, and i'm very grateful to all of them. i started the blog in 2019 because the only other general intersex askblog at the time (actuallyintersex) had gone on hiatus and there was just very few active intersex bloggers from like...2017-2022. and i wanted there to be a space for intersex people to ask questions and get advice on tumblr. i feel like there was also a lot more of a culture of having askblogs than there is now. i remember all the blogs like transteensurvivalguide and nonbinary support and a bunch that i'm forgetting now. it's so cool to me now that there's a lot more active intersex blogs now and that we aren't the only intersex advice blog any more. i love seeing more and more intersex people find each other and talk about intersex topics together.

anyway just realized it had been five years and thought i'd make a little post <3

[makoto-shizumu]

A Long Rant About the 2024 Olympics Boxing Gender Row

Disclaimer: DO NOT REPOST. This post contains personal opinions and information gathered over the past week concerning female boxers and Olympic finalists 🇩🇿 Imane Khelif (left) and 🇹🇼 Lin Yu-Ting (right), as well as their opponents. You are welcome to share your thoughts, but if you come to me with hate or an attempt to convince me they are men through claims such as that of XY chromosomes (which have never been proven, mind you), especially if you or your source(s) cite the corrupt, biased and discredited International Boxing Association (IBA), will be blocked and have your comment(s) deleted. If proper fact-checking is too much work for you, I suggest you save your energy and block me instead. On the other hand, if there are relevant updates or information that I may have missed, do let me know in the comments, and I will edit this post accordingly. Lastly, I do not condone the harassment of any of the individuals involved - that time is better spent on more valuable causes such as 🇵🇸 helping Palestinians, 🏳️‍⚧️ supporting trans people, and calling for the rearrest of convicted child rapist Steven van de Velde. Thank you for reading.

Angela Carini is not a hero.

We all know Carini abandoned her match not even a minute in and complained about being “punched too hard” by Khelif - who made the women’s lightweight quarterfinals in Tokyo. The cop competed in the welterweight division and lost her opening bout 2-3 to 🇹🇼 Chen Nien-Chin (who will join Khelif on the Olympic podium, fuck yeah).

Carini’s involvement has gradually garnered less attention since her apology, but she will have a long way to go before she can be forgiven, especially by Khelif. An Italian posted and translated her deleted tweet before the infamous 46-second bout clearly alluding to Khelif as a man, and Algérié Football Média recently released a recording of Khelif, where she explains how Carini’s club and the Italian media took advantage of her.

What’s worse, the IBA decided to offer Carini a hundred grand as a “consolation prize.” At least this time the Italian federation values their dignity more and refused the money.

Luca Hámori is not a hero.

Remember the Instagram story reshares that she had to take down? Besides the bull-headed giant, Hámori reshared another which called Khelif a korcsot - a dehumanizing Hungarian slur which Google interprets as “monster” or “freak,” but more accurately translates to “mongrel.”

Hámori entered the ring expecting to walk out as a “savior,” but it was Khelif who turned out to be the bigger person that day. Upon her victory, Khelif called out the IBA for their abuse towards her, but she fights on because of her faith in justice.

Svetlana Staneva is NOT A FUCKING HERO. Neither is her equally ill-informed coach, Borislav Georgiev.

This case makes me especially furious not just because I’m also a Taiwanese woman like Lin Yu-Ting, but also the abysmal immaturity of 34-year-old Staneva, THE SECOND OLDEST BOXER IN THE FEATHERWEIGHT DIVISION. Even Hámori has shown more decency in the ring, and she’s eleven years younger!

If you, like me, have watched their full match, you should acknowledge that Yu-Ting was undoubtedly the better boxer that day - same case in her RO16 bout against Sitora Turdibekova.

On the other hand, you’ll see that Staneva doesn’t need “protecting,” considering she literally held Yu-Ting by the head and SLUNG HER ACROSS THE RING (around 3:25-3:30). I’m sorry, Staneva, did you ever realize the audience was there to watch boxing and not wrestling?! And she calls herself a “proud XX woman.” Our commentators did not witness that gesture, but if they did I trust they would’ve been fuming as much as I have the past few days.

If she truly were a proud woman, she would not play dirty the entire time, then give up five seconds before the final bell. Look me straight in the eyes and tell me that you would want to be represented by such behavior. I feel sorry for the Bulgarians and her other supporters who had to witness such a shameful performance.

Oh, one more thing… Guess who the IBA gave a bronze medal in the 2023 World Championships after disqualifying Yu-Ting?

That’s right, it was Staneva. No wonder her coach was willing to give up all professionalism and pander to the IBA’s lies. And look what that got them - now they’re not allowed anywhere near the Olympic podium! This could be unlikely, but let’s hope they are punished by the IOC and/or any relevant departments back in Bulgaria.

(I’m not going on Twitter for a better resolution of this photo. This one fries my eyes enough.)

Esra Yıldız Kahraman is not a hero.

I am at a loss of words.

What the actual fuck, Kahraman. We thought you were better than this.

I will only say this once. DO NOT confuse bad sportsmanship, disinformation, transphobia, (inter)sexism, and racism with “defending women’s sports.”

Reducing womanhood to chromosomes, genitalia, physical appearance, and/or some other bullshit is the most despicable and disgusting thing to come out of such hatred, and I will die on this hill. And gender tests? They were abolished due to their ineffectiveness at identifying maleness after Atlanta 1996, but the IBA won’t admit it. And considering their latest mess of a press conference, they would rather stay relevant with empty claims and unnecessary threats. Stop giving them the time of day! Listen to the podcast Tested instead for more info on this matter.

Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-Ting did not make the podium in Tokyo, but they will both leave Paris with their heads high up and medals hanging down their necks - all the while the likes of “fEmInIsTs” and bigots such as J.K. Rowling, Elon Musk, Donald Trump, and Logan Paul can only COPE AND SEETHE. Their victory is a victory for women, a victory for Algeria, a victory for Taiwan, and a victory for the boxing world that I never thought I’d care so much about.

I’m counting on Khelif and Yu-Ting to win gold and dunk on all the haters all over again. But respect to every other medalist in the welterweight tournament for being great sports - 🇨🇳 Yang Liu, 🇹🇭 Janjaem Suwannapheng, and our dearest Nien-Chin. You all deserve the podium! 💖💖💖

[interactyouth]

A doctoral student is seeking participants for research on the experiences of current & former intersex college students!

[entropy-sea-system]

General psa to not just go for natural supplements claiming to boost testosterone or estrogen without looking into whats in it and what the ingredients actually do, because a lot of them will just boost LH and increase the more predominant hormone in your body or depend on what gonads you have. Im not sure how it would vary for different intersex conditions but unless its a drug that actually increases estrogen or testosterone or progesterone etc. (or is straight up the hormone) for anyone with any organs, its not going to give you your desired result.

Do research into what a drug or supplement does before taking it. Chances are, some boost hormones depending on the organs in your body and are not inherently masculinising or feminising(whichever effect preferred), and may have other unrelated effects on the body. I feel like people often ignore that herbal supplements can cause harm too, if taken improperly or with no knowledge of what they do to the body.

[intersex-awareness]

(via In 'Every Body,' a galvanizing moment — and celebration — for the intersex community | AP News)

An estimated 1.7% of the U.S. population — or about the same number of red-haired people — have some intersex traits, including genitalia, reproductive organs, chromosomes and/or hormone levels that don’t fit typical definitions for males or females. At a time when gender is an increasingly fraught battleground everywhere from state legislatures to youth sports leagues, those born intersex contradict any strictly binary notion of gender.  “Every Body,” which recently premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival, seeks to be a galvanizing moment in the intersex rights movement, a small but growing advocacy for a sizeable segment of LGBTQIA+ people (the “I” stands for intersex).

[oleander-in-drag]

One aspect of TERF ideology that I want to point out is the mentality of blaming an individual for a systemic issue. This is a prominent idea throughout white feminism overall, of which TERF ideology is simply another sub sector, and I’m sure a lot of people are already aware of it, but I still wanted to mention a few particular examples.

One thing that triggered this post was an argument I saw about how trans women shouldn’t have access to mammograms because they’re taking them away from cis women who “actually” need it (which is a more polite version of what TERFs really say, which is that trans women “want” breast cancer in order to feel like a woman (and I don’t think I have to explain why this is vile towards both trans women and cis women)). Not only is this just unhinged levels stupidity, as everyone— including cis men— have the potential to develop breast cancer, it also perfectly encapsulates the problem with TERF “activism”.

I’m going to specifically talk within the context of the UK, because most TERFs hail from here (there’s a historical reason for this that I could talk about in another post if anyone’s interested), and this particular argument is really dependent on the NHS. For those who don’t know the current state of the NHS, there is a huge issue right now with funding and staffing our healthcare system, to the point where waiting times have genuinely become death sentences. Many people are unable to access proper healthcare in time for that healthcare to actually work, and a huge number of people are at risk of dying or becoming seriously ill before appointments can even be fitted in. This is certainly a problem amongst cancer patients, so yes… there is a conversation to be had about people’s fears over not having access to life-saving treatments or preventative measures such as mammograms.

The problem is, though, is that this is a systemic issue. This is not the fault of trans people, who already make up such a small number of the population in the first place, especially when those trans people also need access to this healthcare. When trans women take oestrogen, there is an increased risk of them developing breast cancer, so they need to have access to mammograms in the same way that cis women do. Just because you don’t like something, doesn’t mean it’s not factually correct. Just because you don’t like the idea that trans women also have an increased risk of breast cancer, doesn’t mean you can just pretend it doesn’t exist and deny them access to cancer treatment.

The real problem is that we shouldn’t have to prioritise people when it comes to healthcare. We shouldn’t have to worry about mammogram appointments running out and therefore decide who’s “more” worthy to get them, because all that’s doing is maintaining an already dystopian reality. The real fight should be ensuring that the NHS has enough funding to allow proper access to whatever healthcare anyone needs, regardless of gender.

And the more you start implementing the “blaming an individual rather than a system” lens to TERF talking points, you start seeing it everywhere.

When they talk about women’s sports, it’s only about keeping trans women out of it. It’s never about fighting for equal funding and coverage of women’s teams compared to men’s teams, or making sure that female athletes are treated with dignity and respect. If anything, what TERFs are campaigning for is militant gender and sex policing that has historically harmed women athletes (especially women of colour and intersex women) for decades, and leads to the oppression of women’s achievements, careers and livelihoods. This is a whole topic for another post, though, especially since it focuses far more on the very real, physical effects that TERF ideology is having— and has had— on intersex people, and I don’t want to just throw intersex issues in as a flippant discussion point for a different subject, but just know that what TERFs are proposing is already causing a lot of damage to a lot of women and intersex people. Just look up Annet Negesa and what she was forced to go through due to having an intersex condition. Her career was ruined. Her body was ruined. Her privacy, dignity and trust was utterly violated, and yet she is an example of what TERFs (the so-called protectors of women’s bodies) are trying to uphold when it comes to women’s sports.

(For more information, I suggest watching this video as a good starting point. It really explains the entire problem with how TERFs view women’s sports, the harm that they’re causing, and how intersex people especially are being harmed by TERF ideology:

~~ This also leads to their obsession with trans women in women’s prisons, for example, and accusing the occasional trans inmate as the sole cause for any and all sexual assaults. Because of course, we all know that ordinarily, women’s prisons are a haven and sanctuary for female sexuality, rather than a very dangerous place that contains systemic issues of power imbalances and corruption /sar. We always talk about a single trans woman, and never about sexual assaults committed by guards or other cis inmates, because TERFs never want to admit that cis women are also capable of sexual violence against other women. Instead of fighting for changes within the prison system to ensure that all inmates (in both male and female prisons) are protected from sexual assault and harassment, they distract the real issue onto trans people in order to maintain the status quo (which is— again— a common theme among white feminism in order to ultimately uphold whiteness as superior; see the section on women’s sports and also, for those of you who enjoy reading, the book “White Feminism” by Koa Beck). This would include implementing proper guard systems that aren’t corrupt enough to turn a blind eye to sexual assaults within prison cells, or ensuring that inmates have their rights intact despite incarceration. Yet, no TERF ever really talks about this.

In fact, in the UK alone, a main issue facing the majority of (working class, but also some middle class) women is poverty and the cost of living crisis. A lot of women (and other marginalised genders) are more vulnerable to this, due to lower wages or less job opportunities or a lack of stable childcare. Most women aren’t going to care about whether a trans woman is in a public bathroom when so many are choosing whether to heat their houses or feed their kids, and yet TERFs are supporting MPs like Kemi Badenoch (who has LITERALLY called the current maternity pay as “excessive”) simply because she agrees with them on banning trans women from female-only spaces.

At this point, we all know that TERFs aren’t really pretending to be feminist anymore, but I know that there are still women out there who believe that this movement is— in some capacity— pro-woman. It’s not. It’s a hate movement that tends to prey on women and girls who have been through traumatic experiences, and offer them an outlet to shift their blame somewhere other than the white men in power. It’s easier to fight a marginalised group of 1% of the population than the 50% in power.

But remember that nothing TERFs are doing is radical. They’re just another sub sector of white feminism and an off shoot of lesbian separatism, both of which work to maintain whiteness and heterosexuality at the top of the pecking order. They can pretend they’re fighting for the rights of lesbians all they want, but they don’t care about the fact that queer women are most at risk of poverty, or that butch lesbians (especially those of colour) are at risk of being targeted in female spaces for not fitting into the feminine “ideal” that TERFs have put on society, and queer women (bisexual, pansexual etc.) are erased entirely. They also diminish any abuse that lesbians and queer women face at the hands of cis women partners, as this doesn’t fit into their worldview of exclusively male perpetrators of violence, and refuse to acknowledge that a lot of domestic abuse cases come from within family units. Half of the current, straight TERFs that you see nowadays would have been part of the lesbian separatist movement during the 70s. The parallels are undeniable; they’ve just chosen a new target.

Lastly, the idea of splitting society into “man” or “woman” is not possible. They say it’s basic biology, but biology is still a science. It does not differ from chemistry or physics in the sense that it is incredibly complex and forever evolving. “XX” and “XY” are the simplest explanations for a far wider picture, that you only really learn when you actually do get past grade 1 biology. The problem is, when we stick to these fixed categories, we inevitably cause irreparable harm to the people who can’t and don’t fit into them. Even amongst TERFs, there will be many women who don’t even realise that they don’t fit into this “XX” and “XY” ideal, because that’s just not how human beings work. We’re far too complex for that. And yet the goal posts are constantly changing, to the point where even JK Rowling sometimes get accused of being a man by crazy transvestigators because… I dunno, her bone structure doesn’t look feminine enough?

The TERF movement will eat itself alive. It is not possible to categorise women in the way that TERFs do, and I can guarantee that the ideology will one day collapse in on itself.

Until then, combat it by researching and fighting for the real issues that face marginalised genders and disengaging from any TERF who tries to trap you in a bullshit debate about semantics. Any valid issue that they may bring up (reproductive rights, sexual violence etc.) can be campaigned about without the need to hurt trans people, because there is not a single group of people out there who are inherently harmful to another. It is always the systems, laws, teachings and governments in place that cause the harm, and these are what need to be dismantled. TERFs will never do that. They don’t want to dismantle them.

Trans people are never the cause for any of these issues. In fact, we’re usually the ones who are most affected by them, and therefore we are just as much a part of this fight for a more equal future than anyone else.

Ignore TERFs. Don’t get drawn in by them. I’ve come across a few people on this site who genuinely fell into the movement with good intentions, and these are the people I’m directing this at. There’s no light at the end of the TERF tunnel. JK Rowling is not your saviour.

[domeniudulce]

Does anyone want to hear about my idea for an essay about Elden Ring's Omens as a metaphor for intersex people and the shit they go through.

[thatneoncrisis]

guh. kicks rocks

[gummy-axolotl]

I'm not a teacher. I'm not an activist. I'm not good at explaining things to others. But I hate having people who are uneducated on a subject I know a lot about being wrong. But I don't know how to correct them and convey the information in a good way. Just. Learn it. The most I can do is show them where I learned this stuff, but we all very well know nobody is gonna click on the link. But I just don't know how to fix it. I don't know how to make people understand. I can't telepathically put information in their heads. Uhg.

[greenbirdtrash]

Reason of gender euphoria: friend told me my voice actually got deeper since the last time we hanged out in discord and i'm smiling so hard my jaw's about to break