Educational Media Reviews Online

"Intersex" is the term used for babies who are born with mixed or ambiguous sexual anatomy. The traditional way of dealing with this situation has been for physicians to "assign" a gender through genital surgery upon the infant. Traditionally, the entire subject has been surrounded by stigma and misinformation throughout the health care community and the community at large. Often a great deal of trauma is experienced by infants and parents having to cope with pressured decisions based upon incomplete or incorrect information. Also, the ramifications of these early decisions have a lasting affect on intersexed people.

This video documents a discussion of what health professionals can do to handle the situation more effectively, thus relieving the trauma for infants and parents. Taking part in the discussion are health professionals, a mother who has had to deal with the trauma of misinformation surrounding the gender assignment of her baby, and an intersexed person. In this roundtable discussion they share their feelings and concerns about the way the intersex issue has been dealt with by health professionals and how the situation might be improved. The panel advocates for a patient-centered approach. They note that the practice of misinforming and withholding information from parents and patients can have a devastating mental effect and that health professionals need to be taught a more compassionate and informed way of presenting the available options. They also note that the stigma surrounding the intersex issue creates a climate of shame and embarrassment and that more education is needed for both professionals and the general public.

While the video presents an interesting discussion upon the subject of intersex, it only touches the surface of the issue. It does not present any statistical data or an in-depth study of the subject. This is a much too complex subject to be explored in a twenty-minute discussion. While the video may be worthwhile for raising the issue in the minds of health professionals, it would be much more effective if it was presented in a different format. A discussion interspersed with other documentary footage, or a panel that includes a greater number of participants who are able to share firsthand experiences would be more useful. I also believe that the title of the video is somewhat misleading. When I first heard the title, I expected this video to give concrete examples of the way for health care professionals to practice "total patient care for intersex" and not just to advocate for the idea. While this video may be a valuable addition for medical libraries that specialize in collections dealing with gender issues, in most instances, I would not recommend it. For those libraries interested in videos exploring the questions surrounding the intersex debate, I would first recommend they obtain Discovery Channel's excellent documentary, Is It a Boy or a Girl?