Controversy Over Operating to Change Ambiguous Genitalia
April 19 -- Hida Viloria, 33, is not the least bit confused about her gender.
"I'm female," she says, "I just feel like I'm a different variety of female."
She's different because she was born with ambiguous genitalia. "My clitoris is much larger than, I think, the average size clitoris," she explains. "And so because mine is larger, it's grown a little more to where it starts to resemble a small penis."
Viloria had no idea she looked different from other little girls until she was 11, when she saw one of her friends as they changed into their bathing suits.
Thousands of girls like Viloria who are born with ambiguous genitalia — known as hermaphrodites or intersexual — have routinely undergone surgery as babies to remove or reduce an enlarged clitoris.
Many doctors believe that operating on an intersex baby's genitals within the child's first year is best for both the child and the parents.
"We believe operating on the genitals in infants is psychologically better to do when the child is younger," says Dr. Kenneth Glassberg, a pediatric urologist. "I think the individual who is not operated on will have problems in society as we know it today."
The American Academy of Pediatrics also says early genital surgery may be best for intersex babies. But over the last few years, a storm of controversy has erupted over the ethics of surgery for intersex babies. Some intersex adults, like Viloria, who has not undergone any surgery, charge that the surgery, for cosmetic purposes, is nothing short of mutilation.
For Viloria, Information — Not an Operation
Growing up, Viloria says she was a popular, sociable tomboy who excelled at sports, but never doubted she was a girl. She got her period and knew she could have a baby some day. She did, however, hit a rough patch when she became sexually active. First she dated men, but then, like many intersex women, she says she realized she was a lesbian. That's when she understood just how different her genitals were from other women's.
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