(by Alice Dreger, Cheryl Chase, Aron Sousa, Joel Frader, and Philip Gruppuso, in the Journal of Pediatric Endocrinology and Metabolism 2005; 18: 729-733.)

Want a copy of this article? Contact me.

Medical writers and clinicians still sometimes use the terms hermaphroditism and pseudo-hermaphroditism to talk about intersex conditions. I traced the political and scientific origins of this nomenclature in my book Hermaphrodites and the Medical Invention of Sex. Now I want to get rid of that nomenclature. It is scientifically outdated and harms patients, parents, and clinicians. So this article aims to convince clinicians to give up this system and implement a new one. This alone won’t change the system, but publishing a peer-reviewed article on this is at least like throwing down an anchor to try and stop the ship.

And this anchor seems to be getting some very nice traction. Lots of discussion about it in the medical scene—and lots of noises of support for the change.

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