American Academy of Pediatrics Position on Intersexuality


 

This press release was issued during the 1996 American Academy of Pediatrics’ annual convention in Boston, in response to a public protest outside the event.

News Release: American Academy of Pediatrics Position on Intersexuality

The American Academy of Pediatrics, a voice for children for over 60 years, is aware of the concerns and sensitive to the needs of intersexuals.

  • Intersexuals are individuals who are born with anatomical characteristics of both males and females.
  • The Academy is deeply concerned about the emotional, cognitive, and body image development of intersexuals, and believes that successful early genital surgery minimizes these issues.
  • Research on children with ambiguous genitalia has shown that a person’s sexual body image is largely a function of socialization, and children whose genetic sexes are not clearly reflected in external genitalia can be raised successfully as members of either sexes if the process begins before 2 1/2 years.
  • Management and understanding of intersex conditions has significantly improved, particularly over the last several decades.
  • From the viewpoint of emotional development, 6 weeks to 15 months seems the optimal period for genital surgery.

The American Academy of Pediatrics is an organization of 51,000 pediatricians dedicated to the health, safety and well-being of infants, children and young adults.

This press release is referenced in testimony by Morgan Holmes on the public protest outside the AAP convention.

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