Surgical Sex Reassignment Should Not Be Done At Birth

All around the country newborns are being bundled up and rushed from the delivery room with little or no explanation given to the parents. These parents are often given very little information about their baby's condition or the procedure known as surgical sex reassignment that will be done on their infant. Since 1910 doctors and parents have been reluctant to accept a child born with anything other than normal male or female genitals. Children born that do not fit the mold of normal are surgically altered to resemble the sex the doctor thinks the child should be. (Dreger) Most doctors practicing in the field of pediatric surgery and pediatric endocrinology feel that a child can not function in life without normally developed genitals. (Lehrman) This belief is based upon the 1955 theory of John Money of Johns Hopkins University that children are psychosexually neutral at birth. Money believed that differentiation occurred as a result of experiences growing up. (Hettena) As recently as 1998 research supported Money's theory that gender identity developed after birth. As a result doctors practicing in these fields have performed thousands of sex reassignment surgeries in

1) Sex assignment should be to the sex that shows the best prognosis for reproductive function, sexual function, normal-looking external genitalia and physical appearance, and a stable gender identity;

John was not the only one having psychological problems dealing with the sex assignment. His mother fell into repeated clinical depression requiring hospitalization. His father became an alcoholic. His brother resented all the attention paid to his sister and began rebelling, dropped out of school, and attempted suicide by drinking drain cleaner. Both children can recount games, as early as age 6; Dr. Money had them play, during their annual visits, out of a belief that "sexual rehearsal" helps to solidify the new sexual identity. Dr. Money had Joan get down on all fours and had her brother come up behind her and grind his pelvis into her buttocks; or Joan would be made to lie down on her back, legs spread, as her brother was made to lie on top of her. Their parents were unaware of these "sexual rehearsals" that were going on. This case has led researchers to reconsider Dr. Money's theory that gender identity begins after birth. (Kipnis)

Dr. William Reiner, a child psychologist at Johns Hopkins University, feels that the most important sex organ is the brain. Hormones, in addition to dictating physical development, also organize the brain to bias an individual for future male-typical or female-typical behaviors, for example, laboratory experiments on mammals have elicited male behavior patterns in adult XX females after in utero exposure to androgens at critical stages of fetal development. Likewise, female behavior patterns have been promoted in XY male mammals by prenatal exposure to anti-androgens. These same phenomena have been observed in humans. This type of research supports the view that prenatal endocrinology biases psychosexual development by affecting the central nervous system. In contrast to earlier theories regarding babies being born sexually neutral, the hormones released during fetal brain developed account for instinctive behavior patterns regardless of sex reassignment surgery. While it remains to be seen how deeply our gender behavior is neurologically attached to fetal development. Variations occur however, independently at many different stages of development. As a result, the total number of biological and or psychosocial possibilities is very large. The study of intersexuality forces us far from the view that humanity comes in two mutually exclusive sexes, readily distinguishable at birth by the presence or absence of prominent external genitalia.

Physical side effects of reassignment surgery include sterility and lack of erotic function or stimulation. Efforts have been made to preserve the reproduction ability if at all possible, however sterility is usually the result of surgical sex reassignment. With the sexual assignment to a female, unless there are both male and female organs nearly fully developed, there is little that can be done to provide stimulation and sensation. In many cases only a cavity is made and a normal looking vaginal opening is constructed. Outwardly the child looks female but internally there is nothing but an opening. To date a functional penis cannot be constructed. A constructed penis would be nothing more than a urinary extension at best, without the ability for erection. Studies have shown that male children born with a less than 1 inch penis, that would have been reassigned female, have normal sexual lives without the surgery. A study of 20 males who had not been surgically assigned at birth to female has had profound results: 12 were postpubertal 17 to 43 years old. While 6 of these dozen admitted to being teased about a small penis, all 20 patients "felt male," and all had erections and orgasms. Nine had sexual intercourse satisfactory to themselves and their partners; seven were married and still others were experiencing sexual activity.

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