I think that because this book is about something I haven't really thought about before in-depth, I have a hard time forming my own opinions. I like the way Sterling presents the material because she seems like she is trying to give the reader as much information as possible and she tries to make the complicated stuff easy to understand.
I was shocked by the stories Sterling told about doctors hiding the full truth from parents and patients and how they performed surgeries that were not medically necessary. The problem with this is that for a long time these medical conditions were poorly understood and there was no unified model for how to treat intersex children. Also, the wide variety of intersex conditions provides another challenge to designing a method of treatment. Another issue I see is that a child's genitalia is such a private thing and not something that parents want to talk about with others. I think that causes intersex conditions to be hidden and most people are not made aware of the children who fall into that category. Thats probably good and bad. The children can be raised as a boy or a girl and people will hopefully treat them like any other child. But when issues of their differences come to light it can cause uncomfortable and confusing situations.
I wonder if a person who had a surgery as a child but then grew up and was unhappy with the result could sue their doctor?
Because the patient never had any say in the matter and now they could have serious psychological issues and feel the need to undergo more surgery to give them the sex organs they feel they were meant to have.
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