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Jasmine Barry Barbara Lowry FWS 236 D010 April 1, 2013

Male or female for life Some children are born with neither male nor female sex organs. These children are known as Ambiguous genitalia .I would even go too far as to call them unsex newborns. There are treatments and surgerys and even medications that can be done to fix the external sexual organs. Of course there are some risk factors with these options. Even with choosing one of things you still have life-long problems that are present. You can even determine by your medical records to see if you have the risk factors in your family. Parents just need to remember that a child is a joy and they shouldnt make hasty choices because there worried about what their friends will think. You cant catch Ambiguous genitalia because it is not a disease. It is something that affects the sexual development of a fetus. It can be corrected by reconstruction surgery.

Reconstructive surgery started around 1930 by surgeons at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore MD. Female newborns with intersex have these symptoms: enlarged clitoris that looks like a

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small penis. Closed labia, or even labia that have folds and look like a scrotum. Even lumps the feel like they are testes in the labia. The males have symptoms like the urethra doesnt come to the tip of the penis, which is called Hypospadias. A Small penis where the urethra is by the scrotum, and lastly either one or none of the testes is present. It is a rare condition. One out of 2,000 births has it. It requires corrective surgery. In most cases doctors tend to wait till the child is old enough to understand what gender he or she feels they are. When the newborn doesnt chromosomes, gonads, or genitals that make it either female or male, then they are Ambiguous genitalia. They may also not have the same internal sex organs as the external sex organs. Its caused by something going wrong during a pregnancy in which the fetal sex organs are not developed right or even at all. The cause for a chromosome female (XX) is CAH. CAH is when the virilizing hormone is abnormally high in utero. It is the most common ambiguous genital cause. Virilizing hormone is a male hormone in a female. Other causes for a female baby to become intersex are exposure to anabolic steroids or even a tumor in the mother that is producing too high of a male hormone. The cause of males to be intersex is similar to the females. There are a few differences though, both have CAH. However the male also can have Androgen insensitivity syndrome, or even impaired testicles development. They can also have 5a-reductase deficiency which is a mutation of the 5a type 2 genes. Being that some doctor wait till the child is old enough to understand what sex they are is a nice option for the parents. If I had an Ambiguous genitalia child I would wait till he or she is 4 or 5 before doing any surgery. I wouldnt freak out and say make my kid a girl or boy now. I say this because first off I the parent wouldnt be living that childs live for them. I wont be at school with him or her to tell people to back off and not make fun of my child. Then when the kid is all grown up in his or her 30s I wouldnt be there to say oh you could have been another

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gender but you were raised this gender. I firmly believe that yes you give life to a child but you dont and cant live there life for them. Yes, u can make it easier or harder for them but you cant know what its like to be born one gender and raised another. They make unsex baby stuff. Unsex is Deprive of gender, sexuality, or the characteristic attributes or qualities of one or other sex. Basically that means that a unsex doll wouldnt be just pink. It could be pink and blue with green and yellow on it. Which I think is an a great way to show a child that its ok to be a girl and play with trucks and Legos, and at the same time its ok for a boy to play house or dress up and even play with action figures. They made a ken doll after all. I would worry that if I raised my child one gender they might actually feel like there indeed the opposite sex. I feel with unsex stuff you dont have to worry about will my kid grow up more female then male if he plays house or dresses up?, or even will my little girl be more masculine if she plays with Legos and power tools? According to NIH its easier to raise an Ambiguous genitalia child as female then it is a male. The risk factors can make parents worried and even might make them want to make a hasty choice is wither there child will be raised and girl or a boy. Children with Ambiguous genitalia do have some risk factors that parents should research and understand them. The most horrible one would have to be the unexplained death in early infancy, which is basically SID.SID, is when your infant dies for no reason what so ever. Even a complete autopsy wouldnt be able to tell how or why the infant died. Another risk is also a big one if you wanted grandchildren in the future. The child becomes infertile. Which infertility can be upsetting and even a problem in the future of the infant. They can become very confused as they grow older. Become anger and even fear what other people might see them as and even low self-esteem. Parents can do test and diagnosis can be made before the baby is born so that they can determine if the fetus is intersex.

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They can do a blood test to determine where your hormone levels are. They are even able to do a blood test that examines the chromosomes and determine if the baby has XX sex chromosomes or XY chromosome. Ultrasounds are able to be used to see if there are any abnormalities in the pelvis area, such as a uterus and vagina. They can use a contact dye that can show up on an X-ray machine that can help doctors clarify the infants anatomy. In other cases they can even collect tissue from the infants reproductive organs by invasive surgery. After the child is born they can do surgery on him or her. The surgery will make it so that the childs sex organ can have a normal sexual function. It can also be helpful in making more natural genitals for the child. Ambiguous genitalia kids tend to have corrective surgery, hormone therapy, and counseling. Three things I think someone with Ambiguous genitalia should have. Corrective surgery can and if wanted should be done just to boost his or her self-esteem. Hormone therapy is very important so you can look the part. So that he or she can become more male or more female. Hormones can be either given at birth or while going through puberty. Lastly counseling is a must... Then again I think everyone could use one now and then. Ambiguous genitalia have an even harder life so they should have one just to be able to tell how they are feeling, or even to understand why they are what they are. Even those people with Ambiguous genitalia may think there strange or unusual; they should still understand that they are special and a human. Even if they cant have children they are still able to have a normal life. They arent ill or unhealthy. They just have a different set of chromosomes then normal people. Parents with children with Ambiguous genitalia should really do a lot of research and talk to their doctor. And not just that one doctor that they have been seeing since the baby was conceived. They should talk to many doctors to get lot of good and accurate information. Then sit down with their child and talk to them about what he or she wants

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to be long term. Parents should accept and respect the choice there child has made. I understand why parents would make a choice right away to change the babys sex; maybe they would choice to change the childs sex because of what status they have in the town, or what status they have with their friends, or maybe there just to embarrassed to say they had neither a boy or a girl. Whatever there reason is they are risking the childs self-esteem and future for a choice they made in hast.