Helping To Understand Intersexuality And Transgendered Intersexuals

American Boyz Intersexuality Doctor Questionnaire

Dear Folks in the GLBT community:

One of the greatest current problems for intersexuals is that we have a difficult time getting medical help. Our conditions often seem obscure and disconcerting to medical personnel, and many have a difficult time getting over their personal biases effectively enough to treat us properly. On top of this, many intersexuals are so traumatized by their early medical experiences that they may develop phobic behavior around doctors, which is only exacerbated by concerns over whether any given medical personnel will be supportive or critical.

How you can help: Take the questionnaire below to any physicians or medical personnel that you happen to patronize, especially if you are openly transgendered or transsexual and have had good experiences with them. Ask them to fill it out, and if the answers are positive, then they or you can return it to the email or postal address provided. The ultimate ideal is to create a national and possibly even international list of medical care for intersexuals everywhere. We are especially looking for endocrinologists and surgeons, but even sympathetic GPs are useful. This questionnaire is also available as a PDF.

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Dear Sir or Madam:

Thank you for filling out and returning this questionnaire. Adult intersexuals are a severely underserved population with regard to effective and appropriate medical treatment. At the American Boyz organization, the single most frequent request that we get from adult intersexuals is, "Where can I find adequate and understanding doctors?" We are hoping to build an international database of physicians who are knowledgeable and sympathetic to our needs in order to do something about this problem.

1. Are you at all knowledgeable about intersex conditions, and/or are you willing to be educated further?

2. Are you aware of the controversy about genital surgery on infant intersexuals? Where do you stand on this issue?

3. Would you be willing to treat an adult intersexual who desired, was in the process of obtaining, or had already obtained sex reassignment to a gender different from the one they were assigned at birth, and be respectful of their choices?

4. Would you be willing to treat an adult intersexual who preferred to live neither as a male or female socially, and be respectful of their choices?

5. Would you be willing to treat an adult intersexual with anatomy that might not be considered "normal" for nonintersexed males and females, without assuming that they necessarily wanted to change that anatomy?

6. Would you be willing to work with patients on nontraditional, individually-driven programs of treatment, especially with unusual or borderline cases? With cases where there was no clear traditional treatment and careful, patient-driven experimentation was needed?

7. Many intersexuals have suffered varying degrees of psychological trauma due to early childhood experiences. Would you be willing to accede to a patient's emotional needs with regard to their comfort level with physical exams, etc., and work with them on ways to make them feel safer during such procedures?

8. If you are amenable to all of the above questions, would you be willing to be listed in our database? If so, please send your information to the following email or postal addresses: The American Boyz, Intersex Liaison, 12 Simond Hill Rd. Hubbardston MA 01452 or cauldronfarm@hotmail.com.

Thank you so much for taking the time to answer this questionnaire. We realize that you are busy and we do appreciate it.

Raven Kaldera
Intersex Liaison
Board of Directors
American Boyz