This is my 1st time posting, but I have been coming to this site for years. I have seen post were a person is attacked (or thats the way it seems) when someone post thier ideas or states thier opinions. I have seen discussions that end up (in my opinion) heated arguments between people who visit this site regularly. I have a number of questions and or comments, I would like a responce, I know people like Danny will systematically answer my questions or make comments which is fine. I just don't want to be attacked which does happen from time to time. (which is why i never posted before.)
#1. I have noted, particularly in post from a year or to ago. People here have a serious issue with the term intersexed. Being purely logical (as i try to be) Intersexed issimply a term used to classify ANY condition when the genitals can't be easily classified as Male or Female. When the Dr takes a look, rather than saying boy or girl he says hmmm???. As a example, we all agree CAH females are female, a condition classed as intersexed is Hypospadias which effects males. I never understood why until I saw a picture of a severe case of hypospadias. The external genital appearance was identicle to that of a CAH female at Prader 4. I understand words carry wight beyond thier basic meaning, the term intersexed is no different, but that is my 2 cents.
#2. I havent seen it here very often, but elsewhere, I have seen the word Gender used interchangably with sex. I recently went to a website for 3D ultrasound, and one of the tings they offered was "determine your babies gender" That burns me up, I have a real issue with that and I just wanted to voice my frustrations. Lets be logical, SEX is the physical attributes of most multicellular organisms directly related to what type of reproductive cells that organism generates. The male sex produces sperm, the female sex produces eggs, hermaphrodites produce both. GENDER is the behavior assosiated with the sex in human society. Males are supposed to act a certain way and females are supposed to act a certain way. When a person is gay or lesbian psychologist call the gender disphoria, the behavior is opposite of the physical sex. (I know my spelling sucks, please don't get on me about it, my spelling erros don't deminish the validity of my statments)
#3 I understand surgery for medical reasons, I used to be strictly against surgery for purely cosmetic reasons, but I have come to realize 99.9% of the people who make such descisions are not driven by pure logic. Emotions play a role, the emotional conciderations of the child is taken into acount and a whole lot of other things go into the descision a parent would make for their child. Personally I am a big advocate for orgasms. That is something I can't see myself willing taking away from my child. True surgeries have improved a great deal since yester year, but it is still a risk to sensation and orgasm. I had thought to myself if surgery for cosmentic reasons is the route you had choosed for your child to take has anyone concidered waiting till after the child has learned to masturbate and maybe then have some understanding as to what they may loose.
#4. In most pictures I have seen of CAH and a few other intersexed conditions. The glans are exposed. I have seen lots and lots. In only 2 were the glans not exposed and covered by foreskin. I have seen in a very old medical book 3 cases of CAH, the child circumcised because they initialy were raised as males. So my questioned is this. Are CAH females or intersex children for that matter routinely circumcised or is the foreskin easily retracted, particularly for picture taking purposes (I know it sounds like a realy stupid question so allow me to rephrase it.) do male type circusisions take place on those with ambiguous genitalia on purpose or by accident in modern times (1980s and beyond)
#5. Final question, I have see a photo of what I would concider Prader 4.5, essentially a male like penis, when erect there is a slight chordee of the glans (not sever but noticeable doward curve), of course there is cryptorchidism, but the urogenital sinus is not completely sealed, and opens at the base of the phallus.
I recently visisted a spanish website about CAH, I don't speak or read spanish but you know what they say, a picture is worth a 1000 words. Anyway they went through the prader scale 1 - 5 with actual photographs. Obviously Prader 5 in identical to a male with undesended testes. the picture immddiately after that was of an individual with what i concider parder 4.5. Based on the development of the child from the lower chest to the knee, the relative size of the child in relation to the hand of the examiner, and the fact the child used her right hand to lift up her shirt (the right elbo and a piece of the forarm was partialy visible. I concluded the child was relatively old (compared to most other pictures of this sort). But no hair was present on the genitals which means the child had not yet reached puberty. I did note how large the clitoris was, virtually identicle to a penis, and much larger than the clitorises in the previous 5 pictures (relatively speaking) so my question is, does the clitoris just keep growing and growing if left untreated?
#6. That picture temporarily caused me to waiver on my stance about cosmetic surgery. (the picture was of an older child so medical nessesity was not at the for front, once again puberty was not apparent in the picture.) Of course after being able to absorbs the image I still believe in putting surgery off until the child is fully aware of the pros and cons. I must admit after that picture I truely understand why some parents opt for the surgery. And I understand why some CAH women are glad to have the surgery even at the cost of pleasure.
Well that is all I have, I hope I am not crusified by these questions, but none the less please feel free to respond.
