Health & Medicine
Germany First European Nation to Recognize "Undetermined" Intersex Children
Kathleen Lees
First Posted: Nov 01, 2013 04:58 PM EDT
Statistics show that approximately one in 2,000 infants are born with an ambiguous gender, portraying characteristics from both types of genitalia. These children carry a variation in their sexual traits, which can range from chromosomes to gonads and genitals, making classification for many parents difficult to determine early on. Some may feel pressured to pick one gender when filling out a birth certificate, and previous findings have shown that it's not always best to classify an "unspecified" sex when the child has no say in his or her own life.
Fortunately, Germany will now have the option for parents to pick "undetermined" for their intersex child.
Germany is the first European nation to recognize this third gender. Only two other countries in the world, Australia and Nepal, have already recognized this classification.
"Some people have life-endangering conditions that require surgery, but most kids do not," Dr. Jack Drescher, a New York City psychiatrist said according to ABC News. "You can make a gender assignment without surgery, and then see how identity develops. The science of knowing how a child will develop any gender identity is not very accurate. ... Nobody can answer the questions about why this happens. It's like the mystery of why people are gay."
A report filed in 2011 from the European Commission also discusses intersex individuals as something different than transgendered individuals "as their status is not gender related but instead relates to their biological makeup (genetic, hormonal and physical features), which is neither exclusively male nor exclusively female, but is typical of both at once or not clearly defined as either. These features can manifest themselves in secondary sexual characteristics, such as muscle mass, hair distribution, breasts and stature; primary sexual characteristics such as reproductive organs and genitalia; or in chromosomal structures and hormones."
Now, German residents can also put X for unspecified when filling out information shortly following their child's birth if there is any confusion regarding the gender.
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First Posted: Nov 01, 2013 04:58 PM EDT
Statistics show that approximately one in 2,000 infants are born with an ambiguous gender, portraying characteristics from both types of genitalia. These children carry a variation in their sexual traits, which can range from chromosomes to gonads and genitals, making classification for many parents difficult to determine early on. Some may feel pressured to pick one gender when filling out a birth certificate, and previous findings have shown that it's not always best to classify an "unspecified" sex when the child has no say in his or her own life.
Fortunately, Germany will now have the option for parents to pick "undetermined" for their intersex child.
Germany is the first European nation to recognize this third gender. Only two other countries in the world, Australia and Nepal, have already recognized this classification.
"Some people have life-endangering conditions that require surgery, but most kids do not," Dr. Jack Drescher, a New York City psychiatrist said according to ABC News. "You can make a gender assignment without surgery, and then see how identity develops. The science of knowing how a child will develop any gender identity is not very accurate. ... Nobody can answer the questions about why this happens. It's like the mystery of why people are gay."
A report filed in 2011 from the European Commission also discusses intersex individuals as something different than transgendered individuals "as their status is not gender related but instead relates to their biological makeup (genetic, hormonal and physical features), which is neither exclusively male nor exclusively female, but is typical of both at once or not clearly defined as either. These features can manifest themselves in secondary sexual characteristics, such as muscle mass, hair distribution, breasts and stature; primary sexual characteristics such as reproductive organs and genitalia; or in chromosomal structures and hormones."
Now, German residents can also put X for unspecified when filling out information shortly following their child's birth if there is any confusion regarding the gender.
See Now: NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone