Sun, Jan 5th - 1:12PM
MALE AND FEMALE MADE HE THEM
GOD IS NOT THE AUTHOR OF CONFUSION
Intersex: What It Is And Is Not
by Andrè Van Mol, MD
Intro to Intersex
Intersex is a colloquialism for what is more formally titled Disorders of Sex
Development (DSD). Per psychiatrist Karl Benzio in an article published in Today’s Christian Doctor in 2015: “Intersex – People
who have anatomy that is not considered typically male or female or have
anatomy not matching their genetic sex of XX or XY. Most come to medical
attention because healthcare professionals or parents notice something unusual
about their bodies or puberty or fertility isn’t normal, but some are not known
until death/autopsy.”
The term intersex leans to the
ideological, and clarity is needed here. A DSD consistently means a definable,
objective underlying medical problem. We should not conflate a condition with
an identity. California’s 2019 Assembly Bill 201 makes precisely that type of error in
section 2295(a)(2): “Intersex people are a part of the fabric of our state’s
diversity to be celebrated, rather than an aberration to be corrected.” That is
both a straw argument and misdirection because a medical condition is something
one has, not who one is. Celebrate the person, yes, and recognize that person’s
disorder of sex development, which may or may not need correcting.
Sex
Sex is objective, identifiable and immutable biology, thus within the realm of
science. Biological sex is established at conception, declared in utero, and
recognized or not at birth. Every nucleated cell in our bodies has a sex. There
are only two gametes, sperm and egg, that participate in the generation of new
life. There is no third gamete active in that process. Sex differences are real
and of consequence. More than 6,500 shared genes are expressed differently in
human males and females. These differences impact our brains; organ systems;
propensity for developing certain diseases; differing responses to drugs,
toxins and pain; contrasting cognitive and emotional processes; behavior; and
more. To offer one example, sotalol has
triple the likelihood of provoking torsades de pointes in women compared to men.
Sex matters.
Gender
Gender is an engineered term that reportedly debuted in the academic literature
in 1955 in an article addressing “hermaphroditism” (as it was then known) by psychiatrist
Dr. John Money of John Hopkins University. (Dr. Money would go down in
ignominy with time, but I digress.) Gender identity refers to self-perception
and feelings that are subjective and prone to change. Gender is most often used
as a sex stereotype. My point is this: nouns have gender; people have a sex.
Intersex, Round Two
The nomenclature “intersex” acknowledges something between two sexes and not a
third sex. The term is intersex and not “extrasex,” therefore acknowledging the
binary nature of human sex. Biological sex rarely may be phenotypically unclear
in a given individual, but this does not represent a third one.
Evolutionary biologist Colin Wright rejects the “sex is a
spectrum” mantra with clear reasoning: “a spectrum implies a continuous
distribution, and maybe even an amodal one (one in which no specific outcome is
more likely than others). Biological sex in humans, however, is clear-cut over
99.98 percent of the time.” Dr. Wright continues, “any method exhibiting a
predictive accuracy of over 99.98 percent would place it among the most precise
methods in all the life sciences. We revise medical care practices and
change world economic plans on far lower confidence than that.”
Intersex/DSD is Not Gender Dysphoria or
Trans-identification
Intersex is not a subjective ideation. There is always an objective underlying
medical origin. The DSM-5 Gender Dysphoria criteria states: “Specify if:
With a disorder of sex development (e.g., a congenital adrenogenital disorder
such as 255.2 [E25.0] congenital adrenal hyperplasia or 259.50 [E34.50]
androgen insensitivity syndrome).” Intersex is what they mean, and it is
different than gender dysphoria.
Intersex/DSD is Rare
Wildly inflated claims of the prevalence of DSD are common, but untrue. Dr.
Leonard Sax exposed the source of some of this in his article, “How common is intersex.” Dr. Sax writes that Anne
Fausto-Sterling asserted in her 2000 book Sexing the Body: Gender Politics
and the Construction of Sexuality that intersex totaled 1.7 percent of
human births. However, Sax shows that she included in her calculations common
conditions having nothing to do with DSD. Dr. Sax notes that congenital adrenal
hyperplasia and complete androgen insensitivity syndrome are the most common
DSDs, which is in keeping with the previously stated DSM-5 Gender Dysphoria
specification. Dr. Sax concludes that DSD/Intersex, “far from being ‘a fairly
common phenomenon,’ is actually a rare event, occurring in fewer than two out
of every 10,000 births.”
Similarly, a 1992 Danish
study found their rate of “testicular feminization syndrome” to be
1:20,400. A 2001 Dutch study stated their rate of androgen
insensitivity syndrome “with molecular proof of the diagnosis is 1:99,000.”
And a 2016 Danish
study examining all their known 46XY karyotype females (androgen
insensitivity syndrome) born since 1960 found the prevalence at 6.4 per 100,000
live born females. Intersex/DSD is rare.
Conclusion
A disorder of sex development/intersex uniformly signifies the presence of a
definable, objective underlying medical problem. Intersex is a
condition—something someone has—and neither an identity nor a third sex.
DSD/intersex represent rare conditions requiring highly individualized
therapeutic approaches and timelines, not a blanket one-size-fits-all
prescription.
About Andrè Van Mol, MD
André Van Mol, MD is a board-certified
family physician in private practice. He serves on the boards of Bethel Church
of Redding and Moral Revolution (moralrevolution.com), and is the co-chair of
the American College of Pediatrician’s Committee on Adolescent Sexuality. He
speaks and writes on bioethics and Christian apologetics, and is experienced in
short-term medical missions. Dr. Van Mol teaches a course on Bioethics for the
Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry. He and his wife Evelyn —both former
U.S. Naval officers—have two sons and two daughters, the latter of whom were
among their nine foster children.
View all posts by Andrè Van Mol, MD
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Clearly, the goal of radical elements is
to highjack evidenced based biology to justify/ fulfill their agenda to normalize any
sexual behavior between any and every other person as acceptable and valid which
sensible people and Christians everywhere will ceaselessly resist.
Children and adults with these rare
medical conditions should not be victimized by radical elements, nor judged for
their appearance, whether in or outside of the church. These medical disorders in
some might affect females with virilization and males with feminization to some
degree in their outer appearance as well as inner bodies.
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