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EDITORIAL

Intersex embodiment: when health care means maintaining binary sexes

Katrina Roen
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Institute for Health Research, Lancaster University, LA1 4YT, United Kingdom; email: k.roen@lancaster.ac.uk

Sexual Health 1(3) 127-130 https://doi.org/10.1071/SH04007
Submitted: 3 March 2004  Accepted: 24 May 2004   Published: 23 September 2004

Abstract

The treatments carried out with intersex children for the purpose of helping them live in a normatively gendered world have raised increasing levels of controversy in the past decade. This paper outlines key debates that are taking place highlighting the relevance of critical approaches to evidence. It points to the value of working across disciplines and epistemological frameworks in order to fundamentally re-think existing clinical practice in terms of ethical concerns and in terms of the reported experiences of intersex people.

Additional keywords: treatment, gender, ethics, evidence, queer, interdisciplinary.


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