page_title: Intersex human rights
section_title: Access to information
hierarchical_section_title: Intersex human rights / Access to information
caption_attribution_description: English: Licence to Lie and to Mutilate: Standard treatment of Androgen insensitivity syndrome AIS in 1963 - Image of: Hauser, G.A., Testicular Feminization. In: Intersexuality. London and New York: 1963, Academic Press. p.273. Outstanding are the "most enthusiastic proponents of prophylactic castration" and the alleged "above average intelligence" of women with XY chromosomes. Deutsch: Lizenz zum Lügen und Verstümmeln: Standard Behandlung von Androgenresistenz AIS im Jahre 1963 - Abbildung aus: Hauser, G.A., Testicular Feminization. In: Intersexuality. London and New York: 1963, Academic Press. p.273. Hervorstechend sind die "enthusiastischsten Befürworter von vorbeugender Kastration" und die angeblich "überdurchschnittliche Intelligenz" von Frauen mit XY Chromosomen.
context_page_description: Intersex people are born with sex characteristics, such as chromosomes, gonads, or genitals, that, according to the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, "do not fit typical binary notions of male or female bodies."
  Intersex people face stigmatisation and discrimination from birth, particularly when an intersex variation is visible. In some countries this may include infanticide, abandonment and the stigmatization of families. Mothers in East Africa may be accused of witchcraft, and the birth of an intersex child may be described as a curse.
  Intersex infants and children, such as those with ambiguous outer genitalia, may be surgically and/or hormonally altered to fit perceived more socially acceptable sex characteristics. However, this is considered controversial, with no firm evidence of good outcomes. Such treatments may involve sterilization. Adults, including elite female athletes, have also been subjects of such treatment. Increasingly these issues are recognized as human rights abuses, with statements from UN agencies, the Australian parliament, and German and Swiss ethics institutions.
context_section_description: With the rise of modern medical science in Western societies, many intersex people with ambiguous external genitalia have had their genitalia surgically modified to resemble either female or male genitals. Surgeons pinpointed the birth of intersex babies as a "social emergency". A secrecy-based model was also adopted, in the belief that this was necessary to ensure “normal” physical and psychosocial development. Disclosure also included telling people that they would never meet anyone else with the same condition. Access to medical records has also historically been challenging. Yet the ability to provide free, informed consent depends on the availability of information.
  The Council of Europe and World Health Organization acknowledge the necessity for improvements in information provision, including access to medical records.
  Some intersex organizations claim that secrecy-based models have been perpetuated by a shift in clinical language to Disorders of sex development. Morgan Carpenter of Organisation Intersex International Australia quotes the work of Miranda Fricker on "hermeneutical injustice" where, despite new legal protections from discrimination on grounds of intersex status, "someone with lived experience is unable to even make sense of their own social experiences" due to the deployment of clinical language and "no words to name the experience".
caption: "They should never be told ... "[79] Licence to Lie - Androgen insensitivity syndrome treatment standards in 1963
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