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Assignment 3:

Physicians are the ones that determine the gender (male or female) of the child when they are born. They rely on John Money and Anke Ehrhardt, where they published a theory (knowing the gender, make sure the genital matches the gender, etc…) and it was supported widely because the cases that kept showing up was related/claimed by what the theory mentioned. Physicians also used some form of the theory and applies it when deciding on the gender along with whether the genitals will fit the child’s gender (masculine penis – a certain size, and feminine vagina – if there is a opening). However sometimes there is an inexperienced physician that comes across a child with an ambiguous genital and they can make a mistake on determining what the child’s gender is. When that inexperienced physician determines the child’s gender and it is incorrect, they usually play around with their words and tell the parents/patients something else. When the parents/patients go to other physicians, who will support that inexperience physician decision, they are told how the other physician’s decision might have came to that conclusion, but other factors (hormones) will determine the gender of the child. Physicians have it kind of tough, but with the development of technology and science determining the gender of the child maybe less of an issue these days with help of virtual reality, 3d scanning, x-ray, etc… You can see the child inside the stomach before it is even born. Physicians should also try to use easier phrasing so that parents/patients understand the situation. Instead of using medical term, which can give lots of people headache, they should explain the process of how the decision was made and what the hormones/chromosomes did to make changes within the body of the baby. That way parents/patients will understand better.

Parents and patients on the other hand rely more on the physicians. For parents, the physicians tell them what gender of the child will be that way they can prepare male/female stuff (toys) and give their child a name (a male name for a boy and a female name for a girl, sometimes some parents will choose a gender neutral name that way it can accommodate both male and female). Parents also have to make a decision on whether or not their child should get surgery because sometimes the genital of the child will be to ambiguous and it is their responsibility to make a hard decision that can affect the child’s life. I think before the parents make their decision they should see more than one physician that way they have more than one opinion. For patients usually a surgery is involved to fix the ambiguous genital and other things as well. They would have to go through some diagnosis (hormonal test) to see if they are producing that specific one (testosterone for males and estrogen for females, although males and females tend to have a little of each hormone from the opposite sex to make up for the physical appearances) for their gender (this way the physicians can determine what gender they are). However that may not always be the case and sometimes a patient is lied to about the gender that they were given. They are asked by the physician to take this drug (medicine) in order to produce the hormones of that gender. The physicians also make it sound like they are normal, but in reality the surgery was done to either remove and replace the reproductive system to match the gender intended for the patient or to just adjust something (maybe size of genital, etc…). This can affect the patients mentally as they grow up being confused with their life (since it is usually a baby that gets their gender being identify). So I think physicians should make a careful decision.

Overall, the people that Kessler interviewed to come up with many different situation and issue shows us how parents and patients rely on physician who rely on Money’s theory. With how advance the society is today the error of determining the gender will decrease more, but in terms of how it is determined and why it is still being determined will probably be a mystery. It will continue for generations until someone decides to make changes and get everyone else angry at that change because after all this is how you make changes in society.

sources:

The Medical Construction of Gender: Case Management of Intersexed Infants Author(s): Suzanne J. Kessler