Intersex: Not As Rare As You Think
Most sources out there on intersexed folk, including some posts/references we ourselves have put up, typically cite the incidences of intersex births as 1/2000 births.
However, recent research and a more thorough/accurate definition of what exactly it means to be “born intersex” reveals that the actual incidence may be at least 4% of all births…if not more.
The figure “1/2000” typically refers to cases in which doctors feel the need to call in a “gender reassignment team” to assign a binary gender to the individual, often through invasive surgery. But a true, full definition of intersex should recognize that being intersexed occurs on a spectrum rather than a binary - and that intersexed genitalia is far less rare than people often think! 4% comes out to an estimated 80/2000 intersexed births, in comparison to the common figure. And as there are so many intersex conditions, and so relatively few people dedicated to research and education in this area, the number could potentially be higher.
If you see other blogs using the “1/2000” number, it may not instantly invalidate everything else they have to say - but it does mean they are outdated. So lets help get this new and most relevant information out there, shall we?
Source: Blackless, Melanie, Anthony Charuvastra, Amanda Derryck, Anne Fausto-Sterling, Karl Lauzanne, and Ellen Lee. 2000. How sexually dimorphic are we? Review and synthesis. American Journal of Human Biology 12:151-166.
*Thank you to tranzfat for first bringing this study to our attention.
