On social media I receive this questions so decided to also turn my answer into a blog too:
What about pubery blockers and surgery?
I do believe that if the family and child have received informed consent, and know that any human being (endosex or intersex) can exist as man/boy, woman/girl, both or neither, that puberty blockers and hormones can be life-saving. However, my concern lies in telling a child they are in the wrong body before they are old enough to figure out if this is their honest truth or not. It sadly took me to the age of forty-six years old to realize my true sex was intersex, and my true gender man, due to being called a Disorder of Sex Development. I figured out very late in life: That I am NOT in the wrong body and that my intersex body is normal for my variation of intersex. When we diagnose an endosex or intersex child with gender dysphoria or a disorder of sex development, we are sadly at great risk of taking away that child’s self-determination by pathologizing them or making their true gender identity a mental condition.
A bit about me: To appear a woman I had to use blockers and extra female hormones. To appear a man, I now inject testosterone. On my own, I don’t have gender dysphoria but was diagnosed with it in error to get testosterone covered by insurance. We have a problem with these binary fixes for intersex and trans kids and adults. The non-binary community and the intersex community is uncovering that there are more than just two choices to exist. That a woman can have a penis or phalus and that it is a girl part now, not a boy part, and she can want it and keep it if she so desires. That a man can have feminine genitals, and even become pregnant as a seahorse dad, and still be a real man. Thank goodness. I can give more examples.
We are all valid rather we have surgery or not. This means we have to end coercing young children into their labels and wait for the child to tell us. Especially when it leads to DSM V diagnosis or physical diagnosis of our bodies which clearly drives the surgery industry. I am not against surgery, I am against pink and blue only options. My sex is intersex, my body a hermaphrodite, and I still am a valid man. I hope for a better world for all of us.
I also posted this question below, and everyone so far has shared that an endosex or intersex child should have the right to pick their own gender identity. You can answer in comments below if you wish. Thank you for helping me to changing this world and ending cultural dysphoria.
My Answer: All children no matter how they are born, endosex, or intersex, should have self-determination over their own personal gender identity, and have control over their own bodily autonomy. This means it is up to them to grow up, with informed consent, and decide rather or not they need hormones or surgery. That we are all valid.
Here is my short TEDxTalk that shares more about my views on self-determination for all children. Born Intersex: we are human!
~.V.~
Mx. Anunnaki Ray Marquez 