[Flash Walken]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0139jv4

A child that is born neither male or female is a rare occurrence but babies born with some form of Disorder of Sex Development (DSD) happens in one in every 1,500 births, according to the support group Accord Alliance.

For some born with a DSD it can mean growing up in a world of shame and secrecy, but many people are working to foster openness about it.

After Janet was born, it was difficult to tell if she was a boy or a girl. "When my grandfather learned there was a question of my sex, it was suggested by him that they just let me die," she says.

Now in her 50s and a mother of two, she was born with a womb, ovaries and female genes but her genitals and hormones were partly masculine. She was diagnosed with congenital adrenal hyperplasia, a DSD where her body makes too much testosterone.

Living with this condition, says Janet, left her a "psychological mess" for many years.

A wide range of factors determine a baby's sex. Disruption in the development of any of these can cause a disorder of sex development. They can range from girls with more masculine characteristics and vice versa, to babies born with indeterminate sex, previously known as intersex.

Clinical psychologist and sex therapist Dr Tiger Devore was born with indeterminate sex. He has severe hypospadias, an abnormality of the penis, which in its milder form can affect one in 250 men.

"(Intersex) people are usually raised with shame and secrecy," he says.


Dr Tiger Devore says parents of intersex babies feel "fear and guilt they gave birth to a child like this"
"Those babies are hidden from general society - and that was my experience of growing up."

"I always had to keep it a big secret. I could not tell anybody I was having surgery down there, which we're not supposed to talk about."

Aileen Schast, a clinical psychologist who counsels families at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, says: "It can be very confusing and isolating for families and what worries me the most is an early feeling of shame starts to develop, as this has to do with genitalia, and we don't talk about that.

"Everyone is dying to find out what the baby is and how do you say we don't really know yet.

"I had one parent tell me she almost wished her child had cancer because at least people have heard of it, so when she needed support she could say this is what my child has and people would know what it meant.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-14459843

I implore anyone posting or reading in this thread to read this article and attempt to watch the program. I had very little exposure to any of this information prior to this documentary and walked away thoroughly fascinated.