Intersex Person : a Natural Victim of Gender Issues, not a Sexual Orientation Disorder

Written and Presented by Moh Hari Rusli in order to complete the English Final Project of his 2nd semester in Pertamina University.

In the last few decades, the people around the world become more openly-minded in the case of gender issues. But most of them are still have a bad view about this issues, especially in the eastern and developing country. Generally they assume that all of gender issues are caused by the sexual orientation disorder or in another word those people become in the such condition not because of nature, but it caused by their failure on making a good intercommunication, and also can caused by trauma due to sexual abuse in childhood, premarital sex, and sexual prompting because the habit of accessing pornographic materials. In this case, they already make a stereotype regarding gender issues. That stereotype maybe correct if they talk specifically about lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. But it turn to be deadly wrong if they attached it to an intersex as a part of gender issues, because It is not a sexual disorder but a natural victim of gender issues.

The easiest way to understand this problem is through the scientific facts. According to the science, the physical aspects defining the sex of an individual are the karyotype, the internal sexual organs, and the external sexual organs. The moment those aspects are not fit the typical definition of male or female, appear ambiguously or not identified clearly, that was a person call as intersex (Creighton, 2001).

Karyotype consist of 22 pairs of autosomal chromosomes (unsex or body chomosome) and 1 pair allosome (sex chromosome). The allosome has a duty to define the sex of an individual. If allosome has XX chromosome so the individual will be female and XY for male, but there is a case when the allosome become XXY, so the individual is an intersex. The internal sexual organs consist of gonads. Gonad is the sex or reproductive gland that produce the gametes or sex cells and sex hormones of an individual. The female gonad is the ovary which produces egg cells, while the male gonad is the testicle which produces sperm or spermatozoa, and if the individual has two of them so it is an intersex. The external sexual organs consist of sexual organs and the secondary sexual characteristics which appear at puberty, male has penis as sexual organ and female has vagina. In humans, visible secondary sex characteristics include pubic hair, enlarged breasts of females, and facial hair and Adam's apple on males. If it mixed between two of them, so that person maybe an intersex.

So the conclusion is the intersex does not a part of sexual orientation disorder, but it’s natural disorder and as well as the victim that we must give more attention to keep their rights, protect from violence, prevent torture, and save from discrimination. The management of these conditions is in the midst of great change. So every aspect must be under review including diagnostic techniques, timing, and nature of treatment including surgery and information for intersex patients.

Reference :

Creighton, Sarah. Surgery for Intersex. Journal of The Royal Society of Medicine 2001;94:218-220