Bodily autonomy for intersex children and adults must be protected
The US intersex health equity report is a step towards providing the bodily autonomy and health equity that intersex children and adults deserve, write Sam L Sharpe, Erika Lorshbough, and Marissa Adams In the last days of Joe Biden’s tenure as US president, the Department of Health and Human Services published a report on Advancing Health Equity for Intersex Individuals .1 Supported by a comprehensive review of published literature on health outcomes and qualitative data from intersex people, the report provides recommendations to help researchers, healthcare providers, and policy makers in improving approaches to intersex health. It highlights the harms of medically unnecessary surgeries performed on babies and young children with intersex traits—also referred to as variations of sex characteristics—and the health and social inequalities faced by intersex adults. These surgeries often happen at a young age, before children can provide informed consent. As advocates, researchers, and i
