Title: THE FIVE SEXES, REVISITED. (cover story) Subject(s): HERMAPHRODITISM; GENDER identity

Source: Sciences, Jul/Aug2000, Vol. 40 Issue 4, p18, 6p, 1c, 2bw Author(s): Fausto-Sterling, Anne

Abstract: Reports on the emergence of intersexuals and the ambiguity of gender. Concept of intersexuality rooted in the ideas of being male and female; Reliance on case- management principles to treat intersexuality; Emergence of intersex activism; Treatment protocol for intersex infants.

AN: 3368034 ISSN: 0036-861X

Full Text Word Count: 3463 Database: Academic Search Elite

Section: Essays & Comment

THE FIVE SEXES, REVISITED

The emerging recognition that people come in bewildering sexual varieties is testing medical values and social norms

As Cheryl Chase stepped to the front of the packed meeting room in the Sheraton Boston Hotel, nervous coughs made the tension audible. Chase, an activist for intersexual rights, had been invited to address the May 2000 meeting of the Lawson Wilkins Pediatric Endocrine Society (LWPES), the largest organization in the United States for specialists in children’s hormones. Her talk would be the grand finale to a four-hour symposium on the treatment of genital ambiguity in newborns, infants born with a mixture of both male and female anatomy, or genitals that appear to differ from their chromosomal sex. The topic was hardly a novel one to the assembled physicians.