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Gender Assignment and Reassignment in Intersexuality: Controversies, Data, and Guidelines for Research

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Pediatric Gender Assignment

Part of the book series: Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology ((AEMB,volume 511))

Abstract

In recent years, gender has become a hotly debated issue in regard to two clinical syndrome categories: Intersexuality, i.e., individuals with ambiguities of the genitalia, and Gender Identity Disorder (GID), i.e., individuals who have normal genitalia but desire gender change. The intersex controversy focuses on the assignment of gender and related issues of psychosocial and medical management. The GID debate centers on the question whether GID should be considered a mental disorder or be removed from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) of the American Psychiatric Association (APA, DSM-IV, 1994) and declared a normal variant in analogy to the 1973 decision of the APA on homosexuality (Bayer, 1987)). The GID debate extends to intersexuality, because if intersex patients have significant gender identity problems, DSM-IV classifies them as GID Not Otherwise Specified (GIDNOS) which implies a mental-disorder status. In the current paper, however, we will leave the GID part of the debate aside and concentrate on the question of gender assignment and related issues in intersexuality.

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  1. New York State Psychiatric Institute, and Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA

    Heino F. L. Meyer-Bahlburg

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  1. Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

    Stephen A. Zderic , Douglas A. Canning , Michael C. Carr  & Howard McC. Snyder III. , ,  & 

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Meyer-Bahlburg, H.F.L. (2002). Gender Assignment and Reassignment in Intersexuality: Controversies, Data, and Guidelines for Research. In: Zderic, S.A., Canning, D.A., Carr, M.C., Snyder, H.M. (eds) Pediatric Gender Assignment. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, vol 511. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-0621-8_12

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