My intersex grandchild was born July 14, 2020. The doctor who delivered her assigned her female at birth...She had ambiguous genitalia at birth. My daughter was not even postpartum 4 hours, when the cah test maybe with salt-wasting symptom...came back inconclusive. Both my daughter and her newborn were medflighted to Arkansas Children's Hospital....without her husband and because of Coronovirius my brave daughter faced "the Team", ie: genestist, pediatric endocrinologist, urologist, social worker and the voyers. Ten days later tests were still inconclusive...Last Wednesday.... She asked the regular NICU doctor...Is my baby going to die? They had taken so much blood from my granddaughter...her little veins were tapped out. The NICU doctor told her "take your baby home, there is nothing medically wrong with your baby". The next morning....the more blood order came in the middle of the night...3am....My daughter stood in front of the pediatric genetist...told her that her and daughter were going home. Her reply was my daughter should stop using the pronoun she and began to preach about the baby's social construct and her gender....cause the baby is XY...probably an androgen deficiency. This is how our journey has begun....please keep us in your thoughts....I just want to love my grandchild...I want her to have the choice....I will walk through fire to see that they have that choice.
Thank you for helping me confirm if whether I am intersex or not; it turns out I’m not but I’d always sorta had questions about it so I’m very grateful that you made this video ❤
Im a AMAB with normal male genitalia and during puberty I developed hips, thick thighs and ass @ 14 w gynechomastia! I thought I was jus a normal male and blew it off because it runs in the family! Later, I started to get suspicious of my body being mostly female because I finally came to realization that my 48" hips with a 42-44-48 figure and b cup breasts were standing out! I thought it might be klinefelters but Im not tall enough, however my mother had me @ 39 and I have comprehension issues here and there! I broke it down to 3 possibilities: Aromatase Excess Syndrome, 46xx Intersex, and Klinefelters! Im estrogen dominant in pelvic structure and body fat distribution; it was very frustrating to find out where I stand! I thought I was transgender but I got a womanish body already wast down w titties and then I went to put on a dress and surprisingly I look good in one! That's me!
@@InnocentGabe no i change my original statement I had a very small penis... really non-existent and more clitoris like... put with a normal urethra And it acts like a clitoris and rolls up under I have a void, a sheath....
I've had a lot of issues with menstruation, hormones, and I was always confused about what I specifically had going on down there so I went to the Dr for help. Got my blood work done and noticed two things: my prolactin was super super high and my testosterone was super low especially for someone who practically lives in the gym. The dr ignored the testosterone thing despite me complaining about chronic fatigue and we went to treating the prolactin issue. My boobs got way small, I started growing more facial hair, I started getting really horrible stomach cramps, and I suddenly got way more muscle definition in just 2 weeks. The drs are now refusing to do any further testing bc hey my prolactin is back to normal and stomach cramps are normal for women right? I'm tired of fighting the dr and like you said, a proper medical diagnosis isn't necessary so I've come to accept that I'm intersex and anyone who says "no" isn't meant to make life changing decisions for me or try to dictate what I do with my life
@@purgxzur1 yes, my mom has it so I’ve gotten to hear about it quite a bit. Higher testosterone levels, infertility, and irregular periods alongside increased facial hair and weight gain are all PCOS things.
How are things now? Did you stay the same or choose the opposite gender? I'm 46 and just found out that I might be intersex. I found a strange surgical-looking scar downstairs that really looks like someone closed up a female sex organ and am uncertain about a lot of things right now.
This is a great video, probably my favorite thus far. My finding out falls into the last group - older people who've discovered it later in life (I'm 37). My best friend (mentioned him in a past video's comments section) is intersex, and his revelation of that fact to me, alongside descriptions of various experiences he had, led to me pursuing questions with my own doctor. And, yeah, the, "older crowd usually finding out there was a lot of hiding things family- and birth records-wise," is. Is spot on. I'd been told I'd had an "accident" as a kiddo when the inevitable, "hey I've got some weird scarring and stuff not in line with everything I learned in Phys Ed, what gives?" question came up. Never occurred to me to question that answer. As my friend went over his experiences, a gradual, "waaaait. Wait. A second," led to tests and consultations fairly recently. My new doc, who's has been mostly pretty good about things compared to a lot of others, confirmed. (Had a good idea it'd be a confirmation given everything, but it was still an odd relief to hear it outside my head.) Birth hospital has record of my birth and certificate, but that's it. No record of a surgery. And it's not listed anywhere else in my records, which confounded the hell out of both me and my doctor. There's a goodish bit of religious extremism on my mother's side which renders reestablishing contact a no-go for mental health's sake, and my father died about a year ago. No one who was there is around (or safe) to ask - even the doctor who'd overseen my birth died quite some time ago, apparently. As messy (and in some respects harrowing) as it's been, finding out has been an oddly easier experience than any of the other self-discoveries I'd made on the LGBTQIA+ front. Lesbian to bisexual, bisexual to pansexual, "whatever it says on the card" to nonbinary, still kinda figuring out if trans applies - all those others came with direct, live-on-the-scene backlash on a lot of fronts. This has been different: I have my good friend who's been at my side through it, a good doctor just in the nick of time, and the first person my friend directed me toward to follow and learn from has been you. And, oh my god, to have had even a tenth of that goodness in the past with everything else. Blows my whole brainmeats to pieces. There's been plenty of Emotional Mess™ with it, but for the live, who's-here-now experience? Zero complaints. So, like, a share. This here's a thank-you for being a big part of that good, informative, overall positive self-discovery experience for me. Beyond dealing with the anger, resentment, and the rest of having been lied to, I've decided I'm going to be happy with being intersex. No shame this time, no war with self-worth; I've had my share of it and then some and I'm exquisitely done with that action. Just going to be happy and love this part of myself right off the bat. And I have you, in part, to thank for that. So: thank you. You're doing something amazing here and deserve all the support in the world.
Thank you for this. Made my day, definitely wanted to cry. So glad you shared, and glad you are finding some clarity and happiness. It's incredible that you have a friend who is intersex! I guess part of the reason why I want to do this is because I had the uncommon experience of growing up as a teenager surrounded by multiple generations of intersex people. It feels like hoarding a lot of context and knowledge that is 'community based,' whereas most people are made to feel isolated or even unaware that this would be something that there is community around. Therefore a responsibility to share. Wish there was anything helpful to suggest on the medical record front... :\ but if you want to get connected to groups please reach out! The info is in the description. All the hugs.
@@julz9378 Showing you have indication of Ovaries inside you if you are male and Male Tes2x inside you if you are Female. Some intersex cant be seen visually so Test can be used. DNA Mapping would be the best to.know without surgery and things
Excellent, Hans. My quest started with a desire to find out why I had been so tiny as a child, and why I was always behind in my development. When I first read about Turner Syndrome, all of my medical stuff suddenly made sense. Except that Turner Syndrome results in being female between the legs. Which I wasn't. So it couldn't be Turner Syndrome. Eventually, I had a karyotype performed. It came out XY/XO. Mixed Gonadal Dysgenesis. A mosaic form of Turner Syndrome. Yeah. Ordinarily XY is male; XO is female with Turner Syndrome. In MGD, the genitals can be anything from typical male to typical female. That's also when I found out that my gonads had been a mix of ovary and testis. As in hermaphrodite. Where was the UNDO button? Then I found out that even my facial shape had been affected. I had the small jaw and pixie face characteristic of Turner Syndrome. For a while, if I had a cold I blamed it on Turner Syndrome. Overall, though, it was great to finally have an explanation.
Thanks Lianne! And absolutely, I know that people fall in different places as far as the need or curiosity to seek a specific diagnosis, to understand their origins. Some people find a lot of peace in that, which is lovely.
@@LianneSimon I am a woman with Turners Syndrome who has been part of the Turners Syndrome community for 22 years and I know many many women with Turners Syndrome . Hope ok to explain but only females have Turners Syndrome. MGD is a similar condition which affects both male and female. It is important to clarify the differences between the two conditions
I was born on n Halloween. My costume for shock value was full hair mode. Hairy from head to ankles and on both sides. And then n closer inspection had both penis but no balls. They were grown firmly set to my ovaries with full girl gear inside behind the sack not overlapped. This was 64. The doctors advised to take off the gear and the ovaries because of cancer risks. My grandparents very Orthodox Jews refused and councils were mere made to my parents it would not be right. I always knew I was tum tum. Neither male nor female and was not raised to fit into n those absolute categories. As obviously expectations of female and male have certain obligations in Jewish culture for each gender including all the purification and gender related aspects of them were off the table. So in some ways I was pretty lucky to be born in a Jewish household that was taught straight forward there are six genders. One plus is no castration at any age. Sad part is the medical community doesn’t know about us enough to actually care for our needs without feeling we need to be fixed at least externally to appear and behave as they do. So they don’t know how to. They operate on unproven assumptions. Things that happen to males and females but may or may not happen to individuals with various intersexual traits. As I got older more re into my teenage years I leaned more male in development as if my girl bits sat idle and didn’t do anything. I’m was still boyish. Felt my true male then neutral. This has not changed 37 years later. I think it is a disservice to not rear children as they are. How we encounter their personalities and honor their own character.
@@soulfoodie1 This is literally not as simple as that LFMAO. You know nothing about sex differentiation, also transgender people with Turner Syndrome do exist... The fuck are you talking about. Turner syndrome is about not having an X chromosome not about your assigned sex
I had a crisis worker tell me at age 47 that I may be trans . At the first support group I attended I was accused of taking black market hormones because I shouldn’t have breast growth and cycle pains . It took me years here in Canada to find a Dr willing to help me. My family Dr was a complete joke... but after almost 4 years I found a specialist who verified I am intersexed. Then at age 53 , my aging mother let the cat out of the bag and let the secret slip out . Back in 1966 when I was born, there was so much shame , guilt and stigmas if a child was born .... with problems. I know my parents tried to do the “ right “ thing but . I have also had dysphoria since age 5 when I tried to cut my penis off with scissors ( thank goodness they were children’s safety ones ) As an infant I had surgery to close up my shallow vagina but left me with ovo-testes and here I am today on hormone replacement therapy. Thank goodness for HRT because I ended up going through PMDD and loosing my stuff ( but after 4 years now on HRT I feel great in comparison) To be honest , I am tired of “ Intersex “ being the invisible “ I “ in the LGBT+ community who don’t care in the least Thank you for sharing Angel hugs and blessings to you and yours 💛💜💛
Actually - as woman with Turners Syndrome I appreciate early diagnosis is important for being able to give girls with Turners Syndrome the relevant treatment for their height issues. In addition we can have issues with hearing , eyes , liver function, bone density celiac disease and other significant health concerns (I have had issues with all of these). In particular women with Turners Syndrome may have cardiovascular issues which need to be monitored. Monitoring these issues is very important. Getting the correct medical treatment for any health issue connected to a DSD/intersex condition is important. Proper diagnosis of these conditions and getting the correct health support is necessary
I dont know much about my genitals being "different" other than not functioning properly. I have a female reproductive system although I dont have a period without medicine. Besides genitals, I have extremely low estrogen for a female and somewhat high testosterone. I'm also non-binary and I'm convinced that I was born without a "male" or "female" brain. I just dont know if I'm intersex, but I have the feeling its true.
im 20 and ive been identified as male up into my teens and then transitioned to a woman. i did so because i was actively denied maleness from others, and i honestly feel like it is because i have a dsd. i had crazy gyno and i didnt think it was a potential sign of dsd, i had crazy hip development, delayed puberty, and im only 5’5 (early bone closure). after my research, i realized this very well could be aromatase excess syndrome. no doctors recognized these as issues, but how are they not? it kinda feels like negligence, and it’s hurtful. it feels bizarre because, when i discussed transitioning i was forced to wait to medically transition later on in life by my ped which wasnt even an issue because i still passed as female pretty seamlessly up until i was 18-20. it was still very heartbreaking, but ultimately i dont really feel trans regardless. i just wanted to look more female in my eyes, because all i saw was male, despite others opinions. ive been researching intersex cases and i discover that these experiences allign with other intersex peoples experiences and it’s enlightening? i genuinely feel like ive found a sense of community.
This is how I feel but the other way around. I'm suspecting turner syndrome and was constantly denied being feminine because I looked so masculine as a kid. Only reason I started growing boobs was because I was on estrogen birth control due to my outrageous and awful period pains. Fucked up that doctors don't tell you shit because "you wouldn't understand" or because THEY don't understand.
I personally do not find it possible to tell if someone is intersex just by _looking_ at them. Doing that is relying on stigmas and stereotypes which don’t make any sense.
Seriously, I know more mustachio'd endosex women than I do intersex people. Hormonal weirdness is common and while I have solidarity with people who have PCOS for example, it's often considered a "soft" condition(that left without closure isn't much less confusing to the person who has it).
I didn't officially find out until around age 26. I knew I wasn't normal back in highschool. I had a bad UTI then and the urologist mentioned to my mom with me present the my testes were undecended and my penis was undersized. I was already insecure about my body and my mom didn't want me labled so did nothing. I didn't go threw normal puberty most would expect. Fast forwarding to age 24 a girl I was seeing thought I should get my testosterone checked because I had ED issues. Test comes back with a score of 96. The lowest my doc at the time had ever seen in a person my age. They just wanted to jump straight into replacement hormones and asking me if I ever wanted kids. Turns out it didn't matter. I bounced around different testosterone therapies and doses that never felt like they did any thing. My current urologist asked me if I ever herd of klinefelter's syndrome. I was like no. He was confident I had it but offered to do a genetic test to confirm. Turns out I did have it. I am XX, Y with Klinefelter's diagnosed age 28 or 29. I'm still figuring out who I am. Even on max dose Testopel at 3 month implantation my testosterone score barely hit 300-400 Wich is low normal. I decided to stop T trying to figure out who I am as an identity crisis. I'm four months off and the lack of T is noticable but only in moods swings and loss of muscle mass. I'm restarting T for the muscle issues. I'm also now having to take an estrogen blocker because my lvls rose to high off the T. I'm 34 now and still trying to find myself.
Im finally glad I stumbled upon someone like you to thoroughly explain things in a proper way in majority of your videos! Im turning 17 soon I am in tbe LGBT community but in the past 5 years I knew something was quite off when I hit puberty. I started getting more masculine features like a beard, xxl clit etc. Even my mom noticed but tried to hide the abnormalities very swiftly alomg with other traumatic experiences I had to carry unfortunately. But thank you for making your content here its extraordinarily helpful💟
Hey, I just wanted to say, thanks for that first bit. I’m a non-binary teen honestly you pretty much summed it up exactly, I knew of the term intersex before I actually knew what non-binary was and found myself wishing for a more androgynous body at a young age so I guess I’ve always kinda hoped I was intersex? Now I realize that I’m probably not and don’t really have a reason to think I am. I guess I just needed to hear that I’m valid, no matter how my body looks. So yeah, thanks again.
I found out in middle age. I was born in the early 60's and my Mom went into a coma directly after my birth (she had a toxic blood illness that nobody had seen coming). My bio Dad basically didn't care, he just knew Mom wanted a girl sooo bad I'm not sure what he said (or even if he just shrugged and said whatever, cos that sounds like something he'd do) and the doctors 'fixed' me. When I hit puberty my shoulders got wide, I did not get hips and my muscle growth was off the chart. Mom took me to the doc who basically shrugged and said to ignore it, "stuff happens" in puberty. Forward ahead to my middle age and after hating myself my entire life and not knowing why I went to get approved for hormone therapy to get Testosterone as I was transitioning to male. The doctor took one look at my natural musculature, heard my stories and asked point blank if anyone had ever told me I was Intersex. I said no. He said, "I really think you are. In fact, I'd go so far as to diagnose you right now." And that's how I found out. :)
I'm really worried I might be intersex. I'm trans, yes, but had been experiencing medical issues (high testosterone, getting my period late, body hair, v pain, etc) since even before my transition that I always brushed off. I'm really worried I might come off like I want attention despite the serious pain I've been experiencing..
I found out by looking through one of my documents that said DSD so I looked it up. It has been kept a secret from me so I had to do my own research and I am still trying to get my medical records but they won' t let me..
Hey Ellie, that sucks, and is not OK. Have you seen the document for tips on trying to get them? interactadvocates.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/interACT-intersex-resource-FAQ-Medical-Records.pdf
Call their medical records phone number...if they are a part of a Kaiser or a big company you can call them directly if you are not give your records. This is a big legal no-no for them to have destroyed childhood medical records.
Hey, thank you for this video! I fall into both the pre-teen and adulthood categories and I'm literally just putting it together. I just bawled at the early onset puberty with varied secondary sex characteristics thing. That was me! I was assigned male at birth, I had facial hair and breast development by like 10, came out as a trans woman at like 19, and as soon as I started taking estrogen, progesterone, and anti-androgens, my body was like Ok cool we're good now. Every time i've googled this question, I've gotten more confused and triggered. As an author and a public speaker, I'm not sure I'm ready to claim this identity publicly quite yet, but this is a watershed moment for me!
This isn't entirely true though because 1. Intersex DOES NOT always "show" in the external body (chromosomes aren't genitals) 2. An Intersex body that was altered at birth is still someone born intersex.
Though from my understanding Congential Adrenal Hyperplasia (CAH) is an intersex disorder and it has nothing to with chromosomes but the adrenal glands.
Thank you for making a video that comes up for that googled question It’s late and I’m having yet another identity crisis about my body (seems like just yesterday I finally came to terms with being disabled, needing a cane for months wasn’t enough apparently) Because like, I’ve known I’m trans for a while now right? But I always feel so out of place in trans spaces because my body just doesn’t match what other trans people are talking about if that makes sense? Like I’m afab but without any medical intervention my puberty like stoped (no more periods, no more breast development, no more growing taller) when I was like just turning 12, i remember at the time I was excited no more periods seemed great! But then like as I started joining trans spaces I’ve felt even weirder about my body because like I have body hair that grows the way people sevral months on T describe it, and my voice is lower than most afab people I know including some people who have been on T for a long time and do voice training, I haven’t experienced a period since I was 11 so I don’t get dysphoria around that And then I started seeing more and more posts from people who are trans and intersex, and I just feel like I relate to those experiences more sometimes if that makes any sense????? It’s the middle of the night, I’ve cried about this twice, I still really feel like I can’t consider myself part of this community, but I still feel better for some reason? I don’t know, I’m rambling. If anyone reads this and has anything helpful to say I’d love to hear
I really can feel you ❤, me too I cried a lot, I can't tell my family about my feelings, I born as a male but I feel that I am female, with the social media the way they treated transgender people I start scared of transgender or I start identifying myself queer and I really don't want to change my gender I just want to be male but looks more feminine, for now I did hormone test and my estradiol is high as a male, and the doctor checked my body, the doctor thought i am taking medication to increase my estrogen but i am not taking actually and the doctor asked me to do MRI test to check if there female organism, I will do it soon I hope there are female organism so i can tell my family that i am intersex and they can't control me or say the worng from me😭😭😭
Though I'm DFAB, my speaking voice ranges from 132 Hz to 65 Hz. In range, timbre, tessitura, and passagio, I'm a developing bass-baritone. There are some DFABs who can sing great C2s but their third and fourth octaves are very alto/contralto/soprano. Though my D2-C2 are fry-ish, I can't get beyond the E4 in chest voice. Even as a child, I had a low, scratchy voice. I didn't sound like the boys (too quiet, too little vocal weight) or like the girls (too much vocal weight, too dark in vocal quality).
Hi it's me Francis, it's been years since I been on ispace. I do not know if you remember me but I just thought about you today and looked you up as I remember you have a channel. I was thinking of reaching out and talking to the intersex community again I met some good people such as yourself. I been away because despite my pattern of isolating myself due to depression and anxiety. It gets lonely and I tend to feel alone in this world. I might reach out on ispace again and maybe even join calls again soon as I have been invited but did not attend due to my struggles in my life. I am 23 now and I remember I joined ispace when I was 17 and first was learning about being intersex and learning more about my specific variation and how it affects me such as hormonally. My experience was as I grew more comfortable seeing different bodies that did not fit under the male and female binary. I became more open about sharing what I was actually going through. But yes I agree with your points in this video, at once point I bought into the gatekeeping as I empathized with the struggles some intersex people go through. But over time I came to realize, yes there is awful stories out there however it's no excuse to make someone else feel less valid because of your pain. I seen things in the intersex community such as people trying to make others show there medical records as proof, even someone saying if anyone claims to be intersex they should go through invasive tests to prove it. I mean it is not always easy to prove as there is a wide variety of variations some very subtle such as ovotestis can appear very subtle like a mosaic pattern and the mixed tissue can be inside the gonad where the only way to prove it is an MRI. That is what happened with my sibling. Mosaicism or chimerism at times is found at random or when being tested at times depending on your type of mosaicism can only be proved when multiple samples from various parts of your body are tested and even then it is impossible to test every single part of your body. And there are some people with obvious intersex signs who do not want to get tested because of the nature in the medical community. Medical records even expire depending on where you live, like here in Canada they expire and update every 10 years, also not everyone carries there medical records with them sometimes they are kept away with your health care provider. By trying to get people to 'prove it' is ironically not that different in ways from republicans trying to get peoples chromosomes tested before they use the bathroom. I even seen the right accuse intersex people online on youtube of not really being intersex and just trans but covering it up so they can be accepted. Which is there way of saying they don't want to believe intersex exists so they can feel there bigotry towards trans people is valid. However I understand this comes from a place of pain for the intersex people who do this. Every intersex variation is different to the point the experiences can be vastly different. No intersex variation is more valid then another, we all have one thing in common despite our differences. We have bodies that do not fit under the male and female sex binary. Ironically the 'medical record people' make it hard to even come out in your own community.
“...What is this the Westminster???” Another great video Hans! I was medicalized from birth, after the karyotype from my amniocentesis didn’t match my visibly female body. Apparently my doctors thought it was super important to get to the bottom of this right at birth, as if I was dying or something. I had my gonadectomy at 3 and didn’t find out about all this until I was 13. Again it was mostly medicalized and there wasn’t much emotional support until I demanded it in my early 20s. Thank you for exploring these issues so our community can be more welcoming! 💜💛
I hit puberty super early in life and had body hair at age 9 and was shaving at age 11, but never felt like a true male. My muscles never developed, I was always weak, and didn't care for sports. I had bloody stools starting in my tweens as well. At age 25, my hair started falling out due to high testosterone yet at age 37, I started growing breasts, my hips widened, my glutes became soft and curvy, my back curved, I started expecting mood swings once a month and started bleeding once a month without having stools. My private shrunk, I started orgasming for minutes at a time, and my semen is clear. At age 40, I don't need a doctor to tell me I'm part Female.
I just realized that you've clearly captioned all of your videos, which is more than most anyone on UA-cam does. Just another reason that this is the best UA-cam channel! You are going to change the world (surely, it's already happening)
Im afab transmasc but have alot of male biological traits/secondary sex characteristics and my partner suggested i may be intersex because of how many 'male' traits i have without being on hrt and decided to look up what classifies someone as being intersex to hopefully figure it out without having to go to a doc about it,
I didn't deal with puberty out of the norm for a female it was just really early and I'm built like a man broad shoulders narrow hips this was evident at around 8 or 9. But other than that my puberty was typical just a little testosterone driven and i started before 8 I went through it at 6 on 7 but normal female development.
I am a female with broad shoulders and high level of muscular density. I read in the Intersex about H Antigen Factor, which affects females before birth, bathing their brain in excess masculinity, but the testes don't descend, we are born with female bodies but male brains, higher level of aggressivity and libido and logical thinking, essentially a serious tomboy for life... I used to want to transition but now I see life from a place of accepting myself as is, it's very freeing. My husband is the reverse, a feminine male since birth, we fit like a glove.
@@nikkijubilant Is there anywhere I can read more about what you mentioned in your second sentence? I have normal genitals and a period. Yet I've always noticed differences in me from my peers. I have about 10 characteristics that are masculine. Ive always wondered if I am intersexed from a young age without knowing the name for it.
I had suspicions for as long as I had memories (circa age 3) that I did not quite fit with boys. I had a precocious puberty (first pubes at 7) which seemed to go both ways and stopped early leaving me with a shorter stature than all the other kids my age or my family, voice slightly descended, ridiculously athletic, no body hair and no facial hair. My parents denied anything might be wrong with me, so it was only in my 40s with a diagnostic of severe infertility and slight breast growth in my 30s I finally gave a real try for a diagnosis. I'm suspected 45X/46XY (and second best hypothesis is some disorder of SBHG) and on a waiting list for mosaicism / genetic testing.
I found out during age 18 and recently also I just got my medical records since parents passed away, and I knew I was different I felt it and also I noticed inside my vagina area had all this rippled scar tissue like I was cut and stuff and I thought that looked very odd and then I found out from someone to help me understand them they said that the labia was fused together and they had to cut me it looks like something a surgeon would make anyhow to me, and I noticed my clit also has no skin and as no hood and it comes out in a different spot and it resembles a penis when it is erected/aroused and I know clits swell up and stuff but mine gets long and resembles more of a penis with a head.
I always felt like my puberty was never completed. I'm a 25 year old AMAB and people still tell me I look like a teen. I have very few hair on my body. My facial hair pattern is similar to a female with PCOS. My voice never got deep. Couldn't grow a beard if I wanted to but I'm trans so I'm glad I don't grow a beard :P
Sometimes the body realises of dyscomfort related to masculinisation or feminisation and finds ways to stop the effect because of the way the body was affected by an other hormonal balance which it still seeks.Personally this is my experience of my sex development,I have memories of feeling things not functioning as my body sought since being a baby,while i definitely wouldnt dare dismiss someone who experiences gender in a more "spiritual/soul" based or more related to expression of clothes I definitely found my experience to be highely physical and a knowledge how things should be physically not being,I wonder if you can relate to this at all.
I found out on a DNA test when my son was born and I was my son I just gave birth to's uncle not just his momma. They did the test four times to be sure and acted very shocked and confused. At heart I think I always knew.
This is food for thought. I've always felt like something was up with me. My voice is lighter and my p--nis has always been small. (I've been with enough guys to confirm the comparison). I decided to take hormones and be honest with myself. I'm happier as woman and my mind has never been clearer. After a few weeks on estrogen I began to engage with my emotions and think of things in a more intricate way. The concept of emotional intelligence was new to me, but now is my focus. That being said, I feel very strongly that I am intersex. I wanted to take a test because I felt it would be dishonest. Maybe this is true and I shouldn't bother with it. But can I Identify with people I feel such a strong connection with? Being trans, I understand that I don't have to justify my trans-ness to anyone else. I know where I feel comfortable. Not in the dead center. Lean closer to F than M, but not by much. I guess I could say I know me. I've been through a lot of soul searching and seeking to come to this understanding. I just don't want to be disrespectful. That scares me so much that just thinking about it right now is bringing me to tears.
I've been slowly finding out for the past year or so, recognizing my traits of "abnormal" / unexpected puberty plus it was precocious. I've gone through a lot of medical trauma seperate from it but quite a bit directly related too, even some recently. Where I live now is a horrible place to try to personally figure out if you have a chronic or congenital thing medically especially if it's unconventional in some way. At this point I know almost for sure I'm intersex despite not having a formal diagnosis because I have almost every symptom, at least two of which are medically documented and one I am getting treated for but doctors are too negligent to look into themselves, of nCAH and I've had so many of the experiences it's so refreshing to speak with others. i remember being worried that i was just another trans person seeking something that justified my identity, and maybe at some small points i was, but looking at things more objectively i see the very obvious natural differences in my body and have come to accept despite the negligence of doctors, i don't need the approval of those who hurt me to tell me i am who i am. i find it ridiculous i have to let the same people who abused and neglected me when they were supposed to help me to be the same ones to define my identity. Saying you need medical validation to call yourself intersex is hypocrisy.
@@cheshire4666 Thank you! Update as well I now think chimerism is on the table for a diagnosis, my mom was more at risk for giving it to a child because of her PCOS and what she was talking. I also realized I have abnormal genitalia 🙃
I love love love your videos! Not only informative but very funny. I’m so glad that you are doing this series because it’s a really important thing to bring this topic into the spotlight. It’s great to have living proof that the strict gender binary is a big lie and that intersexed people are not abnormal or mistakes. Thank you very much for being open when society still wants to keep it locked away behind so much stigma.
lots of dots I didnt really connect or have words about cause I didnt know about such things. Kinda obvious in hindsight buh meh... like having girl bones, storing fat like a girl. Had awwful acne during puberty, awful anxiety - like crippling levels of cortisol through my 20's. No one would help me or even consider something was biologicaly wrong with me. When I hit my 30's my body started to relly fill out when I was 35 I stopped doing upper chest excersies at the gym the breast fat/tissue was growing as well to a point that was geting akward. I never had a very "man" shape, allways struggled to build muscle and keep it. Then around 37 I started getting periods... ad thats when I peiced things together and did research... like magic my hormone straved brain and body started working like a normal persons. I cant even pass as for androginious or as male anymore, which has been like its own weird ass episode of "Sliders" but real life... Nature seems to have made me a hermaphrodite with both organs and outcomes with that. Overall though I am pretty happy finally fitting into myself and my biochemistry comfortably. Delving into stuff deeper biology plays a pretty huge role, even stuff like the experiance of sex and other drives matters and is observable, even if activists are like trying to ignore or erase those facts in favor of a subjective anything goes social constructionalism they depend on normalizing? Prob why its so hard as intersex, when theres so much energy put into effectivly erasing us and biological realities and outcomes... I know I spent most my life trying to figure out what is wrong with my male firends, and how they seem driven and motivated in ways I simply dont seem to operate lol. For example I have a pet theory that the biological male brain might give a bit of a reward for acting on or getting postive feedback with intracting with the oposite sex. What else would compel male behaviour such as going out of ones way to comment on a womans body from a vehical moving 40 miles an hour? Thats a lot of work and effort, there has to be a reward for that or else no one would spend the effort, and women don't seem to share the same scope of drive and behaviour. Theres diffrences... I mean this is the basis justifying transition, before a lot of confusing activism I guess? I have a mistrust of doctors in general they seem to want nothing to do with you if you are "nonstandard" with "nonstandard" problems... Iv been made uwelcome by that lot of medicalizer intrsex people in groups, and Im not dysphoric and dont understand trans ocused groups and people... I fit nowhere, videos like this make me feel not crazy and not alone.... thanks for everything you do Hans.
I have hesitated to say I'm both Intersex and Trans for the reasons you pointed out here, but it does explain my life experience the best. It's also the reason I didn't realize I was both until later in life (have Klinefelters but enjoyed having a more feminine/less masculine puberty and never tried to have kids). I was misdiagnosed with low testosterone at 40 (actually no testosterone) and that's when my medical trauma started. I'm finally off T and on Estrogen and transitioning (de/retransitioning?) and am so much happier. I also usually say that I'm "maybe intersex" because I thought you did need chromosome proof ... but that changes today. Thanks.
Im super confused. I've been wondering whether im intersex for the longest time, but cannot find anything for certain. I am also trans (ftm), so after researching a bit a while back, i came to the conclusion that i must of just been trying to justify myself. But things still dont feel like they add up. Growing up, i used to get bullied for being super hairy and 'smelling like a boy' and after i came out a lot of people thought i was already on testosterone, and some just thought i was a cis dude. Now, i have finally started testosterone, and when i took my testosterone levels a month on they were ABNORMALLY high, but weren't being converted into estrogen, meaning my body was able to handle it. Now i'm investigating my anatomy and doing more in depth research, but i don't know whether im just going on a wild goose chase. Do you think these signs point towards being intersex? Or should i just accept that everyones body is different and that i dont need to label my experience?
@@cheshire4666The ONLY way that trans women can have periods is if they were born intersex. Other than that, it's not possible. I PROMISE I'm a Trans ally, but I'm just stating facts. Intersex trans women can have periods. I was born male, and I still am, and I do experience stomach cramps, but I don't THINK it's a period. I never had blood coming out of me. P.S. I DO identify as male, and I hope I'm not intersex.
Very well made video again! You always describe things so well--clearly and kindly. And I love the little gimmicks you do in the ending (I laughed quite a bit at the truscum part, plus the whacking ableism, white supremacy, and patriarchy part).
Lovely video as always:) I found out when I learned more about the term intersex and researched it, slowly coming to the conclusion that an earlier op was coming very close to the experiences other intersex people had.
I am finding out at 40 years old. Aromatase excess syndrome. Normal testosterone, crazy high estrogen. Normal testes and build. I had a mastectomy after I had a bad experience transitioning to female and terrible time on estrogen over a 3 year period. That was 20 years ago. And after wanting to transition again tests reveal I have high estrogen (250 pg/ml) and low-normal testosterone (340). I was always masculine but felt like a tomboy, like women, wanted always to be one, but born as a man. Didn’t know I would have grown breasts naturally.. anyway now going through struggles at 40.
I have male genitals but i have like breasts, im infertile and dont produce male hormones. Ive only discovered the word recently. Am i intersex? I also never went through puberty and im 27
Such a great video, thanks for sharing. This is a good conversation to have that the rest of the LGBTQ+ community should hear. I can imagine how frustrating it is for people to want to be intersex like it's a cool accessory to wear. There have been times I've heard allosexuals say "I'm basically asexual now" when they have broken up and are temporarily staying abstinent. It trivializes a whole community so I would get frustrated too if I were in your shoes. As for the intersex stuff, one thing from a past video of yours has been stuck on my mind. The way you broke down different sex characteristics was helpful, but at one point you mentioned that even one characteristic would be enough to be intersex. For me, my sex is female but I do grow facial hair and am pretty certain I have high testosterone. My sister also has high testosterone and has PCOS. I've been pressured by my family to do something about my facial hair to be "datable", I've had children laugh at "my beard", and I don't want to test my testosterone levels cause I don't want to be pushed into taking birth control like my sister. Frankly, I would love it if I could rock my beard but I know that would bring a lot of stigma so I don't. It feels like such a small thing that I don't know if I could call myself intersex for it. And I can't find information about my situation anyway or know how common it is for female sex to have facial hair. I'm fine with just being panromantic ace. I'm already in some cool communities. I'm just still confused about there being a definition for intersex that could include me when I never considered it before. And I wouldn't want to intrude with my little experiences when there are bigger issues intersex people face that they need support and change for. Sorry to ramble. Really love your channel
I think if you feel comfortable with your beard then you should be able to keep it. Maybe dye it a cool color that you like and just find ways to enjoy it. :) You are unique and it is okay. :)
Hi im 15 and been wondering for years now why my puberty was so much different from others. (I am a girl) 1. Chest. Basically nothing grew, at all. 2. Hair. A lot of hair. 3. Body. My body is muscular and "wide". Especially my shoulders. If im wearing a dress it looks like a muscular man wearing it which just doesnt really look good. 4. Face. I have a very strong jaw which looks horrible. 5. Periods. I often get them only every 2 months. And last time i havent gotten it for 3 months. Also... facial hair. I have a small mustache, and often very thick and dark hair grows under my chin. Another thing is, no other female in my family has had this problem Could it be a possibility that i might be intersex in some way?
Hi! I know you asked for intersex experiences, but I'm here to ask if mine counts. I'm still trying to work out exactly what my diagnosis means and if I should claim the intersex label. I'm a 19yo AFAB trans person, and I've been recently diagnosed with POCs. In the last few days I've stumbled into people talking about POCs and intersex labels, and it got me thinking a lot. I've done hormonal bloodwork before, and it has always come back within the range of cis women until the last few months, alongside people commenting on how they thought I had started HRT. On one side, the term intersex technically fits. But on the other, I've never had any intersex experiences; so the label feels unearned. That might be because my trans experience overlapped with it, or because of the protocols in the country I live in. In any case, is there any way to figure out what would be the most accurate way to deal with this? Thanks for any advice!
I actually have a video on this! ua-cam.com/video/h-jN13Cw7XU/v-deo.html There's resources on these questions in the description. Wishing you all the best in figuring it out, know you will.
I had hormonal weirdness since I started puberty, and I've been wondering if I could be intersex. I'm physically considered typical, but I have a ton of body hair and a baritone/tenor voice. My parents and doctors didn't like my masculine features and coerced me into going on estrogen when I was 13. My body responded horribly to it. I had horrible cramps that gave me whiplash. My periods lasted for around a month/month and a half, with the heaviest bleeding I've ever had. I'm also trans, so having a lot of estrogen in my body made my depression worse. I had to resort to hiding my pills to stop the pain.
I have not found out yet but I have had experienced some of the symptoms you mentioned. I either had too much testosterone or produced less testosterone especially during puberty. However, I have always felt different since I remember as a child and I didn't know why I felt that way it really boggled my mind. I was mistakenly called a girl or of female pronouns before and after puberty and through out my teen years and up until 30 years old. I started aging fast after that at 35. Hmmm... what is wrong with me? help me understand! 🤔🙏❤
Late to watching this but: I got sort of a late diagnosis of PCOS, 17/18 (I forget honestly), considering my symptoms started at age 8, and that has a whole story behind it but I started adopting the intersex label because I ran into it when I was about 12 and thought it fit my body because for the longest time thought maybe something was /wrong/ with my body and the experiences I had with my family because of my hyperandrogenism was not good in the slightest, and my own personal bodily effects from it causing insufficient estrogen when I was in the diagnosis process just made me feel that way again so I actually ended up researched into the term after I got diagnosed with it, read the different definitions people have for it, and made sure it wasn't offensive for me to use the label for myself by non-PCOS having intersex people. It's really helped me accept my body, understand my experiences better, and just hate the systems we have in place. Sometimes it's just hard calling myself intersex publicly BECAUSE of the gatekeepers.
The information on intersex is very limited, i've been looking and i feel more like an alien on this planet everyday. That secret that you want to tell but just can't and its driving you up the bloody wall. This video answered a bunch of my questions. I had to get as much information from my Grandmother about my birth before she lost her mind to dementia, my mother will not tell me a single thing. I know I was born very early at 22 weeks, she had miscarriages before, she smoked up until 2 months after she found out I had been made and my father also smoked. Mom dressed me in her clothing and said she always wanted a girl, I was a boy and did boy things, until I brought home my friends sisters barbie dolls, then I couldn't be trusted because I liked girls clothing and had someone elses dollies in my room. I noticed my body didnt start changing until late teens, I didnt actually start growing facial hair until age 25. By the time I reached age 21 my breasts had grown and were female shaped with a staggering 34DD, keeping in mind I was 6'2" 165lbs far from fat. I started exploring the idea of wearing a bra (how to hide that or breasts from everyone), I had developed wide set female hips, and butt to go with, I even worked out at the gym long enough to see an attractive hour glass figure. Yeah womens clothing tends to fit like a glove. Never once did I see that typical male chiseled chest and male figure that all my guy friends had. Now I'm 39 and while I've filled out to a 38C and I gained 2" more in height and have a squeaky voice now. Had a hormone test done at age 36 and it showed testosterone was very low 200's. They didnt check Estradial and I wish my Doctor had. March of 2019 I was diagnosed with cancer in a testicle they removed that and hormones didnt really change it did give my body the opportunity to live on more estrogen which has been nothing new. Every doctor I have complained to about having female features just blew it off, oh you cant have breasts and have facial hair, hips and the female hormones in a significant quantity and survive. :-/ My primary flat out refused to order any further testing to find out why my body produces so much estrogen, its not like losing a testis caused male hormones to drop from 900 to near nothing. Removing that testis didnt change any hormone levels. I supplement a lot of vitamins and minerals to make up for lost effects that hormones help play a role in moving around. I intend to find someone who will let me do HRT but not to the extent of going to male hormones, that's not the right treatment, just a better balance of estrogen, testosterone and anything else. Imagine the Urologists face when he read my numbers back to me and asked if I wanted to do TRT and I turned him down. Estrogen does weird things but guess who is happier with it flowing like a river. I called today to see about a karyotype chromosome analysis those are expensive (cough $455) this is why you answered my question on that. I was truly only trying to figure out why my estrogen has been 395 pg/mL which is roughly what it is for a menstruating female but I live on this hormone production everyday. The last thing is I have the typical male reproductive part minus the ability to reproduce I was sterile before and nothing has changed, everyone says well you can have kids with only one testis. No you don't understand there is nothing there its the size of a baby pea.
Can I be amab(I use he him pronouns), have all male sexual organs, but very low testosterone, can I be intersex? (My father is intersex btw) Are there any intersex conditions where only hormones are affected?
I found out a few years before my mom passed. She told me I was born with what looked like Both Male and female genitals. At age 40 . I've always referred to myself as TRANS.
I really don’t know at this point! I have a working PP but when I was 14. I had painful breast, sharp stabbing feelings in my stomach, and my body is very feminine. I don’t have a prominent adam’s apple, my voice is pretty high. My facial features are gender bending…. If I’m no intersex then I must be an alien😂
I wish I wasn't intersex as I was not treated well as a child during and after surgery. What your speaking of brings back really bad memories of those days you wish had never happened. As a ten year old this whole process wasn't very good. The first surgery was bad and then a nun slapped me because I was crying out in pain. If that were not enough clearly things were hide from me the very young child next to me was changed into a girl from what I was told by this crazy therapist. she spoke to me like this was some form of punishment or something. The truth is is I felt like I should have been born a girl and never told anyone of this. Yet somehow this child was being changed into One. was this some sort of punishment? I was so fearful of this whole process that I shut down emotionally and never spoke to anyone of this until I told my wife many many years later. After years of work I came to terms with who I am and even have embraced that part of me. Yes I do fall into the transgender spectrum. My DNA is male but little else is.
My parents always said they thought I was going to be a boy. I'm enby now but AFAB. My former therapist lent me a book about an intersex person in France without me ever even thinking I was not cishet then. I get marked as male on paperwork all the time (literally had to fight with a Drs office to get covid results bc of this). Truly wondering if I'm intersex and my parents hid it or didn't know
Well for me I have a y chromosome that's enough to be intersex I got nothing else not even the diagnosis. Well at least in depthly. Just enough where like the dna test showed I have a y chromomse but it doesn't affect anything I'm still classed as female even though I've always thought I was male before all this anyway lol. It's like that where I'm very similar to trans people. In that i was born female but I have always known i was male since I knew the mental difference from a man and a woman.
bro I tought it was weird to pass 8 months without period (like a long-break) lol (I'm also a ftm), but I think it is....normal to not have it every month- thanks for the info
I don't know. I'm just a bit more confused because I have most of those signs but there is no way i can certainly say it. I mean, it has to be beautiful to grow in up some place where there is medical attention and a less hostile enviroment. You could take that like an explanation why some trans hope it would be their case. Because in some places we have to justify and verify our own existence. In context my puberty brough me a non masculine voice (i had to fake it), bigger hips, some periodic pain inside there (not always too strong, not soft neither, not always regular, sometimes really threw me down) that was with me (the strong pain) until i started my HRT (estradiol). So it would help me a lot. I'm living as a woman now, and i'm fine than ever. But it would give me an explanation for all that pain, also it would allow me to get a better medical care and fix my documents which means a better chance to get a job or going back to visit my family. If is not i'm fine than ever living as a woman but if it is true it would help me a lot. I guess i will never know, because there isn't a doctor who dare to spend time to take a look in there in a legally man younger than 50. I guess i would have to wait until 50 or 55 so that zone could be examined
thank you a lot for this video I am a young person really struggling with some problems such as looking at pictures and medical stuff of what my "female body should look like" and there are quite a few things that don't fit what I have at all and I definitely know I don't have a male body and I also have a never ending period (not joking) so I have been very very confused and honestly slightly scared because now I'm very very worried about my family forcing me into surgeries if a doctor finds out and diagnoses me or hormone therapy I'm having a very hard time accepting I am intersex out of fear of well mainly doctors and my dad is a paramedic himself and been through a lot of medical training and stuff so I'm also scared about him agreeing with doctors :/ I'm having such a hard time. I'm experiencing a lot of the things you're explaining
I appreciate your help with intersex. I thought I was intersex ,but I was told I was only transgender male. I'm glad, though, I found out later than never.
I am promoting: "How do I know if I'm intersex?" Video essay. Thank you for making these videos. Especially since I have personally been very hurt by gate-keepers when I first came out. I love your sense of humor! I now help people in my Beyond the Binary Gender Nonconformist group and have told them pretty much what you do in this video. I am glad to know we think similarly about this topic. Intersex born, Dr. Cary Gabriel Costello is thinking intersex traits could be as high as 1 in 150. So this is a lot of people. Endosex Variations and Intersex Variations are vast, and where we draw the line can be confusing. I refuse to gatekeep now, even though over three years ago I did that to two people and have apologized to them. I see the harm and stopped with those two questioning people. However, can you clarify about the medical involvement of knowing that you are intersex when it involves medical proof in order to get an intersex birth certificate and if you think this is okay or not? To change your birth certificate we have to have signed medical letters. Doesn't matter if you are transgender or intersex. It sadly takes medical proof that you send in with your forms to change your birth certificate. For me, it also took a certified court order of proof from the court. If you want to call it that, what Sara Kelly Keenan, Hida Viloria and I went through to get this birth certificate is serious "gatekeeping". Which will also mean that not everyone will be able to achieve an intersex birth certificate that should get one; but also keeps those out who shouldn't. It is a mess really. Much love to you and thank you for answering and sharing your thoughts about this. Here is my TEDx on receiving my intersex birth certificate: Born Intersex: we are human! bit.ly/TEDxMxAnunnakiRayMarquez
WOW, I watched your Ted talk. Well done. Very important message and brave of you to stand up there and tell everyone, including me. Thank you. Much love to you and your family.
Im 15 and I grew up believing I was female, I have female genitalia, breasts and a menstrual cycle however as I got older my face started developing in a more masculine way. Im attracted to both genders but more sexually attracted to females and I feel so guilty about it. My parents said in my ultrasound they were told that I was a male but when I was born they saw that I had a female part instead. My dad has 14 kids and I'm somehow his only girl. I feel like I was born in the wrong body or something. I wanna be female but I'm so tired of feeling like I dont fit into feminine standards and I get mistaken for a boy even if I dress normally. I go to an only girls school and everyone always makes comments and asks if I'm a boy or a girl.
I think we’re all going thru a similar thing, I’m 15 and I have a lot more masculine features as well, I’m praying I’m not intersex. I just wanna feel like I’m really a girl 😭 I feel like no guy will ever love me if I am intersex.
The reason I wonder if I'm intersex is not because I think it would justify being trans, but because I had a lot of signs of possibly being intersex before and after I was born. But doctors never looked further into it because my private area looked and appeared normal upon birth. But I've had absolutely insane hormonal fluctations and sensitivities all my life that really have no other explanation. While testosterone helps me to treat my gender dysphoria, it also helps me to regulate my hormones. My body appears to have violent reactions to Estrogen and other hormones often associated with people who have ovaries. Edit: Both my mom and I are 95% sure that I could be intersex. But I have yet to find a doctor willing to look into it. There's just not a lot of information or research about the signs of being intersex in the medical community.
Well I'm just finding out If I am at this point. When I was 14 I started developing tiny breasts and people used to make fun of me for them. Was chubby at the time so I thought it was part of that, regular gynecomastia I would have to take care of later in life. Then when I was 19 years old I started to lose weight and do more exercise, only to notice that my body was taking an hourglass shape and my hips started to grow wider, my butt started to get rounder and my pelvic posture kinda developed a natural tilt. Then in my 20's I started feeling dripping-like sensations on my perineum. Along with extreme mood swings, blood in my urine and now recently cramps...boys shorts are starting to fit me less and less... I am sure now that there's a 90% possibility I am intersex. At this point, if I get a medical diagnosis and it turns out I'm not, I would be even more surprised 😂
I'm so confused, I've always wondered if I'm intersex because I was assigned male at birth and have a penis and testicles, but when I hit puberty at 11, I grew wider hips and my voice didn't drop and I saw some breast development, but I developed an eating disorder and lost A LOT of weight (which ofcourse meant I didn't have much fat to redistribute), I didn't get anymore breast developement, and at 12-13 I had a slight voice drop and leg hair came in, at 14 I got a tiny bit of stomach hair and some chin strands here and there, and at 15-16 my chin hair seemingly maxxed out and has only increased a small amount with almost no other facial and body hair. My voice hasn't dropped at all, my shoulders aren't very braud and my skin is soft, my face is feminine and I almost always get called ma'am in public (part of the ma'am thing could probably be attributed to my presentation, I forgot to mention I'm a trans woman). Anyway I think I may be intersex but really don't know, everyone thinks I'm taking estrogen even my doctors ask if I'm secretly taking it and I'm not, I just have naturally more feminine characteristics.
I have a connective tissue disorder that causes me to have long limbs and a skinny body, however, sometimes I feel I might also be intersex since my face looks feminine and young and my voice isn't deep and I never grew that much body hair, I'm 24 and a "male", however, I think my testosterone is fine. I have a sexuality. It works. So, I don't know.
I assume you mean a form of Ehlers Danlos? That does tend to cause variances in appearance, and tends to appear in populations with less hair overall. My doctors think I have the hypermobile version too.
I'm not an advocate for strict medical definitions of what "is" intersex enough. But even by those terms, I know many folks consider that within the umbrella.
Everything is connecting when puberty hit my body didn’t do like a normal female it did like a male and I have to live like that thanks for helping me out on what I am
I havent really been told or had too many tests through my whole life. I mean I get blood work now related to my hrt. Only have had 3 tests so far over the past 2 yeara and a half. My levels are all good to go. I dont have to take a whole lot of estrogen and I have wonderful results. But I also never really considered it until recently as a possibility with recent knowledge. My puberty was meh as far as male puberty. I got hairy hahaha but my voice didnt get too deep. I had to try to sound male. I didnt really feel like male puberty hit me till like 16 17 years old. I never really went through a full puberty. I seen what all expected. I got a lil bit of growth in my adams apple. Which i hated. My female puberty 2 years so far. It going wonderfully and my body is reacting the way its supposed to. Others say im on a low dose with my levels looking good is probably because my bodys naturally producing e
I have been wondering if I’m intersex. Despite being AFAB, puberty made my voice deep, gave me more hair, more muscle, and I get periods only three to five times per year. A lot of my puberty experiences have been things I’ve had in common with my AMAB friends rather than my AFAB friends. Also my “parts” look different than what I always saw in sex ed. I talked to my doctor, she just offered me estrogen, which I said no to. That was the end of the conversation. Never got a diagnosis or anything. Been considering bringing it up again.
There’s a 1/10 condition where female’s produce slightly more testosterone then normal… which some people define as intersex, but you can’t really test for it
I mean i am ftm but without any interferance from me, my body is terrible at being female and my doctor is stumped. i dont have very good acces to healthcare so its gonna be more trouble than its worth persuing further so im thinking maybe i can get an incling for whats up cuz intersex would make a world of sense
Well, I was hand made into a boy, but did not masculinize during puberty. That is a long time ago, and nobody knew what to call it, I was simply different. I very slowly feminized, and switched over to present as a female, and got my genitals corrected. But to change my German birth certificate, I had to be diagnosed with DSD, and it had to be stated in a doctors letter. S, for some of us, it is very important to be officially diagnosed to be intersex, no matter what we call ourselves.
Thanks for acknowledging those that didn't find out until their 40's or 50's and the lies of that period in medicine and psychology. 👩🏼⚕️👍 Was 48 when we found out, but wasn't much of a surprise to us and made a hell of alot more sense then what we were lead believe all our life.
@@Alicia-lo7ny 5 ultrasounds with no response back from the physicians till We-I finally got a response about why a 48 year old Chimera was suddenly going through hormonal changes after a lifetime of nothing plus other things that are abit to personal for the internet. We-I also similar features and hot flashes constantly since the age of 12.
Seventeen and honestly still don’t know but not sure if I should look into medical testing or not. Im AFAB but even though my puberty was relatively “normal” it still ticked me off. Period started early and cycles can go from the usual to the one that left me anemic and stalled all other cycles since then. There’s also that I have a high amount of testosterone so right off the bat I was growing a mustache and now im finding the same pattern but with a beard + having generally very hairy body and little to no breast development. There are other things that could probably be it (hell I might even have a blood disorder) but whatever I have going on I honestly hope that I just find a clear-ish answer.
Have you considered polycystic ovarian syndrome, endometriosis, hirutism? And birth defects of the uterus? My uterus is split in half by a wall (bicornuate or septate uterus) and it bleeds differently than uterii without walls. I also have had PCOS. I take LoJamiesse birth control to control my bleeding from my fibroid which was making me anemic. I hope you can get a transabdominal ultrasound and a prescription like that. They can also look at your ovaries and uterus with that and it is way less invasive than a transvaginal ultrasound. Try going to a trauma-informed, LGBTQ+ friendly, pro-life gynecologist because the other ones are really mean and could seriously hurt you mentally and physically. Last person I saw left me in pain for three days while joking "how does it feel to be examined by a murderer" (really scary) and telling me I do not feel pain when I am screaming in pain from what she is doing. Gynecologist, Dr. Lynn Knowles in Austin or San Antonio. Don't see her. She called me her enemy and said her other enemies sent me. That confused me because I do not know her enemies. It was weird.
Also do not go to the 4 Corners ObGyn clinic in Durango Colorado because they yell a lot and will refuse to treat you with care even if you go to them immediately the day after being raped by your landlord and they will call you a liar and make up other explanations for your blood and pain, even if he stabbed you with a knife. They will tell you that you look normal. :(
im amab but ive been told by multiple people that i have a femme body, especially if i wear a mask and pony tail, so im wondering if i might be intersex
I think I have PMDS but nothing is found on ultrasound, the doctor referred me for a colonoscopy bc he thinks it may be an intestine problem. I’ve asked for a chromosome test to find out if it is but doctor said he needed evidence, but I have PMS symptoms for years with no obvious reason.
I'm not sure I want to like... list weird medical things. But also not sure who to talk to about this because my current doctors are like "Your fine" when I've had traumatic experiences and also just loss of feeling in.. You know where
Thank you so much! I don't know yet if I'm endo or inter* and I honestly don't care. But the way I found out I might wanna check was finding out a person scribbled through something in my child-health-book. So the thing is, specific amounts hormones are VERY different from typically ones that afab 'should' have. Ao it's kinda hard But my testosterone is in the exact middle of the typical masculine spectrum. So completely different. But I can't find any information:')
![Intersex explained (Part 1) [+CC Español, Türkçe]](/img/n.gif)
My intersex grandchild was born July 14, 2020. The doctor who delivered her assigned her female at birth...She had ambiguous genitalia at birth. My daughter was not even postpartum 4 hours, when the cah test maybe with salt-wasting symptom...came back inconclusive. Both my daughter and her newborn were medflighted to Arkansas Children's Hospital....without her husband and because of Coronovirius my brave daughter faced "the Team", ie: genestist, pediatric endocrinologist, urologist, social worker and the voyers. Ten days later tests were still inconclusive...Last Wednesday.... She asked the regular NICU doctor...Is my baby going to die? They had taken so much blood from my granddaughter...her little veins were tapped out. The NICU doctor told her "take your baby home, there is nothing medically wrong with your baby". The next morning....the more blood order came in the middle of the night...3am....My daughter stood in front of the pediatric genetist...told her that her and daughter were going home. Her reply was my daughter should stop using the pronoun she and began to preach about the baby's social construct and her gender....cause the baby is XY...probably an androgen deficiency. This is how our journey has begun....please keep us in your thoughts....I just want to love my grandchild...I want her to have the choice....I will walk through fire to see that they have that choice.
It's two years on, I hope they're both well.
as an intersex person, its so good to know your supporting your grandchild. im sure your an amazing grandparent
@@schnauzermum1000 Ty for sharing this; we pray things go well with y'all both Physically AND Spiritually In our Savior 's name!
Thank you for helping me confirm if whether I am intersex or not; it turns out I’m not but I’d always sorta had questions about it so I’m very grateful that you made this video ❤
Im a AMAB with normal male genitalia and during puberty I developed hips, thick thighs and ass @ 14 w gynechomastia! I thought I was jus a normal male and blew it off because it runs in the family! Later, I started to get suspicious of my body being mostly female because I finally came to realization that my 48" hips with a 42-44-48 figure and b cup breasts were standing out! I thought it might be klinefelters but Im not tall enough, however my mother had me @ 39 and I have comprehension issues here and there! I broke it down to 3 possibilities: Aromatase Excess Syndrome, 46xx Intersex, and Klinefelters! Im estrogen dominant in pelvic structure and body fat distribution; it was very frustrating to find out where I stand! I thought I was transgender but I got a womanish body already wast down w titties and then I went to put on a dress and surprisingly I look good in one! That's me!
I'm the same..
I don't understand but slay
@@InnocentGabe no i change my original statement I had a very small penis... really non-existent and more clitoris like... put with a normal urethra
And it acts like a clitoris and rolls up under I have a void, a sheath....
females clothing fits me better than male clothes clothing
Update: I got a 35-25-41 measurements and been almost 21 months in on HRT !
I've had a lot of issues with menstruation, hormones, and I was always confused about what I specifically had going on down there so I went to the Dr for help. Got my blood work done and noticed two things: my prolactin was super super high and my testosterone was super low especially for someone who practically lives in the gym. The dr ignored the testosterone thing despite me complaining about chronic fatigue and we went to treating the prolactin issue. My boobs got way small, I started growing more facial hair, I started getting really horrible stomach cramps, and I suddenly got way more muscle definition in just 2 weeks. The drs are now refusing to do any further testing bc hey my prolactin is back to normal and stomach cramps are normal for women right? I'm tired of fighting the dr and like you said, a proper medical diagnosis isn't necessary so I've come to accept that I'm intersex and anyone who says "no" isn't meant to make life changing decisions for me or try to dictate what I do with my life
This could be PCOS or something
fucking been there. Solidarity 1000% 🤝
@@SwimDeeepi though PCOS involved high testosterone and different symptoms
@@purgxzur1 yes, my mom has it so I’ve gotten to hear about it quite a bit. Higher testosterone levels, infertility, and irregular periods alongside increased facial hair and weight gain are all PCOS things.
@@wafflesthearttoad6916 Yeah, my mom has it too
You forgot depression, anxiety, extreme shyness. 46 years old XXY, yeah It's been one hell of a journey and still a pain in the ass.
Honestly even if it's not depression or whatever, just digging up clues to confirm what's actually going on can be an exhausting process.
@@AlexMint And just a month ago finding out that I have a mutated gene in with all this that doesn't help anything, makes life even worse
I feel depression like you mentioned,
I feel like I don't know myself!!!
How are things now? Did you stay the same or choose the opposite gender?
I'm 46 and just found out that I might be intersex.
I found a strange surgical-looking scar downstairs that really looks like someone closed up a female sex organ and am uncertain about a lot of things right now.
@@davidm4566 Choose? born a man, still a man. still the same everything.
This is a great video, probably my favorite thus far.
My finding out falls into the last group - older people who've discovered it later in life (I'm 37). My best friend (mentioned him in a past video's comments section) is intersex, and his revelation of that fact to me, alongside descriptions of various experiences he had, led to me pursuing questions with my own doctor.
And, yeah, the, "older crowd usually finding out there was a lot of hiding things family- and birth records-wise," is. Is spot on. I'd been told I'd had an "accident" as a kiddo when the inevitable, "hey I've got some weird scarring and stuff not in line with everything I learned in Phys Ed, what gives?" question came up. Never occurred to me to question that answer. As my friend went over his experiences, a gradual, "waaaait. Wait. A second," led to tests and consultations fairly recently. My new doc, who's has been mostly pretty good about things compared to a lot of others, confirmed. (Had a good idea it'd be a confirmation given everything, but it was still an odd relief to hear it outside my head.)
Birth hospital has record of my birth and certificate, but that's it. No record of a surgery. And it's not listed anywhere else in my records, which confounded the hell out of both me and my doctor. There's a goodish bit of religious extremism on my mother's side which renders reestablishing contact a no-go for mental health's sake, and my father died about a year ago. No one who was there is around (or safe) to ask - even the doctor who'd overseen my birth died quite some time ago, apparently.
As messy (and in some respects harrowing) as it's been, finding out has been an oddly easier experience than any of the other self-discoveries I'd made on the LGBTQIA+ front. Lesbian to bisexual, bisexual to pansexual, "whatever it says on the card" to nonbinary, still kinda figuring out if trans applies - all those others came with direct, live-on-the-scene backlash on a lot of fronts. This has been different: I have my good friend who's been at my side through it, a good doctor just in the nick of time, and the first person my friend directed me toward to follow and learn from has been you.
And, oh my god, to have had even a tenth of that goodness in the past with everything else. Blows my whole brainmeats to pieces. There's been plenty of Emotional Mess™ with it, but for the live, who's-here-now experience? Zero complaints.
So, like, a share. This here's a thank-you for being a big part of that good, informative, overall positive self-discovery experience for me. Beyond dealing with the anger, resentment, and the rest of having been lied to, I've decided I'm going to be happy with being intersex. No shame this time, no war with self-worth; I've had my share of it and then some and I'm exquisitely done with that action. Just going to be happy and love this part of myself right off the bat.
And I have you, in part, to thank for that. So: thank you. You're doing something amazing here and deserve all the support in the world.
Thank you for this. Made my day, definitely wanted to cry. So glad you shared, and glad you are finding some clarity and happiness. It's incredible that you have a friend who is intersex!
I guess part of the reason why I want to do this is because I had the uncommon experience of growing up as a teenager surrounded by multiple generations of intersex people. It feels like hoarding a lot of context and knowledge that is 'community based,' whereas most people are made to feel isolated or even unaware that this would be something that there is community around. Therefore a responsibility to share.
Wish there was anything helpful to suggest on the medical record front... :\ but if you want to get connected to groups please reach out! The info is in the description. All the hugs.
I found out through a DNA test that's basically it. I was 22
where do you get a dna test from???
@@Pseudofaewonderer we wanna knowww
What made you make the test?
How does a DNA test show that
@@julz9378 Showing you have indication of Ovaries inside you if you are male and Male Tes2x inside you if you are Female. Some intersex cant be seen visually so Test can be used. DNA Mapping would be the best to.know without surgery and things
Excellent, Hans. My quest started with a desire to find out why I had been so tiny as a child, and why I was always behind in my development. When I first read about Turner Syndrome, all of my medical stuff suddenly made sense. Except that Turner Syndrome results in being female between the legs. Which I wasn't. So it couldn't be Turner Syndrome. Eventually, I had a karyotype performed. It came out XY/XO. Mixed Gonadal Dysgenesis. A mosaic form of Turner Syndrome. Yeah. Ordinarily XY is male; XO is female with Turner Syndrome. In MGD, the genitals can be anything from typical male to typical female. That's also when I found out that my gonads had been a mix of ovary and testis. As in hermaphrodite. Where was the UNDO button? Then I found out that even my facial shape had been affected. I had the small jaw and pixie face characteristic of Turner Syndrome. For a while, if I had a cold I blamed it on Turner Syndrome. Overall, though, it was great to finally have an explanation.
Note that I have since discovered that there are a very few boys with Turner Syndrome and an XO karyotype.
Thanks Lianne! And absolutely, I know that people fall in different places as far as the need or curiosity to seek a specific diagnosis, to understand their origins. Some people find a lot of peace in that, which is lovely.
@@LianneSimon I am a woman with Turners Syndrome who has been part of the Turners Syndrome community for 22 years and I know many many women with Turners Syndrome . Hope ok to explain but only females have Turners Syndrome. MGD is a similar condition which affects both male and female. It is important to clarify the differences between the two conditions
I was born on n Halloween. My costume for shock value was full hair mode. Hairy from head to ankles and on both sides. And then n closer inspection had both penis but no balls. They were grown firmly set to my ovaries with full girl gear inside behind the sack not overlapped. This was 64. The doctors advised to take off the gear and the ovaries because of cancer risks. My grandparents very Orthodox Jews refused and councils were mere made to my parents it would not be right. I always knew I was tum tum. Neither male nor female and was not raised to fit into n those absolute categories. As obviously expectations of female and male have certain obligations in Jewish culture for each gender including all the purification and gender related aspects of them were off the table. So in some ways I was pretty lucky to be born in a Jewish household that was taught straight forward there are six genders. One plus is no castration at any age.
Sad part is the medical community doesn’t know about us enough to actually care for our needs without feeling we need to be fixed at least externally to appear and behave as they do. So they don’t know how to. They operate on unproven assumptions. Things that happen to males and females but may or may not happen to individuals with various intersexual traits.
As I got older more re into my teenage years I leaned more male in development as if my girl bits sat idle and didn’t do anything. I’m was still boyish. Felt my true male then neutral. This has not changed 37 years later. I think it is a disservice to not rear children as they are. How we encounter their personalities and honor their own character.
@@soulfoodie1 This is literally not as simple as that LFMAO. You know nothing about sex differentiation, also transgender people with Turner Syndrome do exist... The fuck are you talking about. Turner syndrome is about not having an X chromosome not about your assigned sex
I had a crisis worker tell me at age 47 that I may be trans . At the first support group I attended I was accused of taking black market hormones because I shouldn’t have breast growth and cycle pains . It took me years here in Canada to find a Dr willing to help me.
My family Dr was a complete joke... but after almost 4 years I found a specialist who verified I am intersexed.
Then at age 53 , my aging mother let the cat out of the bag and let the secret slip out .
Back in 1966 when I was born, there was so much shame , guilt and stigmas if a child was born .... with problems. I know my parents tried to do the “ right “ thing but .
I have also had dysphoria since age 5 when I tried to cut my penis off with scissors ( thank goodness they were children’s safety ones )
As an infant I had surgery to close up my shallow vagina but left me with ovo-testes and here I am today on hormone replacement therapy.
Thank goodness for HRT because I ended up going through PMDD and loosing my stuff ( but after 4 years now on HRT I feel great in comparison)
To be honest , I am tired of “ Intersex “ being the invisible “ I “ in the LGBT+ community who don’t care in the least
Thank you for sharing
Angel hugs and blessings to you and yours 💛💜💛
Thank you very much for your reply. I was ten years old in the 196
In 1993 it was still the same, i am mutilated from down there...
Actually - as woman with Turners Syndrome I appreciate early diagnosis is important for being able to give girls with Turners Syndrome the relevant treatment for their height issues. In addition we can have issues with hearing , eyes , liver function, bone density celiac disease and other significant health concerns (I have had issues with all of these). In particular women with Turners Syndrome may have cardiovascular issues which need to be monitored. Monitoring these issues is very important. Getting the correct medical treatment for any health issue connected to a DSD/intersex condition is important. Proper diagnosis of these conditions and getting the correct health support is necessary
I dont know much about my genitals being "different" other than not functioning properly. I have a female reproductive system although I dont have a period without medicine. Besides genitals, I have extremely low estrogen for a female and somewhat high testosterone. I'm also non-binary and I'm convinced that I was born without a "male" or "female" brain. I just dont know if I'm intersex, but I have the feeling its true.
Have you looked at PCOS?
im 20 and ive been identified as male up into my teens and then transitioned to a woman. i did so because i was actively denied maleness from others, and i honestly feel like it is because i have a dsd. i had crazy gyno and i didnt think it was a potential sign of dsd, i had crazy hip development, delayed puberty, and im only 5’5 (early bone closure). after my research, i realized this very well could be aromatase excess syndrome. no doctors recognized these as issues, but how are they not? it kinda feels like negligence, and it’s hurtful. it feels bizarre because, when i discussed transitioning i was forced to wait to medically transition later on in life by my ped which wasnt even an issue because i still passed as female pretty seamlessly up until i was 18-20. it was still very heartbreaking, but ultimately i dont really feel trans regardless. i just wanted to look more female in my eyes, because all i saw was male, despite others opinions. ive been researching intersex cases and i discover that these experiences allign with other intersex peoples experiences and it’s enlightening? i genuinely feel like ive found a sense of community.
This is how I feel but the other way around. I'm suspecting turner syndrome and was constantly denied being feminine because I looked so masculine as a kid. Only reason I started growing boobs was because I was on estrogen birth control due to my outrageous and awful period pains. Fucked up that doctors don't tell you shit because "you wouldn't understand" or because THEY don't understand.
I personally do not find it possible to tell if someone is intersex just by _looking_ at them. Doing that is relying on stigmas and stereotypes which don’t make any sense.
Seriously, I know more mustachio'd endosex women than I do intersex people. Hormonal weirdness is common and while I have solidarity with people who have PCOS for example, it's often considered a "soft" condition(that left without closure isn't much less confusing to the person who has it).
I didn't officially find out until around age 26. I knew I wasn't normal back in highschool. I had a bad UTI then and the urologist mentioned to my mom with me present the my testes were undecended and my penis was undersized. I was already insecure about my body and my mom didn't want me labled so did nothing. I didn't go threw normal puberty most would expect. Fast forwarding to age 24 a girl I was seeing thought I should get my testosterone checked because I had ED issues. Test comes back with a score of 96. The lowest my doc at the time had ever seen in a person my age. They just wanted to jump straight into replacement hormones and asking me if I ever wanted kids. Turns out it didn't matter. I bounced around different testosterone therapies and doses that never felt like they did any thing. My current urologist asked me if I ever herd of klinefelter's syndrome. I was like no. He was confident I had it but offered to do a genetic test to confirm. Turns out I did have it. I am XX, Y with Klinefelter's diagnosed age 28 or 29. I'm still figuring out who I am. Even on max dose Testopel at 3 month implantation my testosterone score barely hit 300-400 Wich is low normal. I decided to stop T trying to figure out who I am as an identity crisis. I'm four months off and the lack of T is noticable but only in moods swings and loss of muscle mass. I'm restarting T for the muscle issues. I'm also now having to take an estrogen blocker because my lvls rose to high off the T. I'm 34 now and still trying to find myself.
Im finally glad I stumbled upon someone like you to thoroughly explain things in a proper way in majority of your videos!
Im turning 17 soon I am in tbe LGBT community but in the past 5 years I knew something was quite off when I hit puberty. I started getting more masculine features like a beard, xxl clit etc. Even my mom noticed but tried to hide the abnormalities very swiftly alomg with other traumatic experiences I had to carry unfortunately.
But thank you for making your content here its extraordinarily helpful💟
Hey, I just wanted to say, thanks for that first bit. I’m a non-binary teen honestly you pretty much summed it up exactly, I knew of the term intersex before I actually knew what non-binary was and found myself wishing for a more androgynous body at a young age so I guess I’ve always kinda hoped I was intersex? Now I realize that I’m probably not and don’t really have a reason to think I am. I guess I just needed to hear that I’m valid, no matter how my body looks. So yeah, thanks again.
I found out in middle age. I was born in the early 60's and my Mom went into a coma directly after my birth (she had a toxic blood illness that nobody had seen coming). My bio Dad basically didn't care, he just knew Mom wanted a girl sooo bad I'm not sure what he said (or even if he just shrugged and said whatever, cos that sounds like something he'd do) and the doctors 'fixed' me. When I hit puberty my shoulders got wide, I did not get hips and my muscle growth was off the chart. Mom took me to the doc who basically shrugged and said to ignore it, "stuff happens" in puberty. Forward ahead to my middle age and after hating myself my entire life and not knowing why I went to get approved for hormone therapy to get Testosterone as I was transitioning to male. The doctor took one look at my natural musculature, heard my stories and asked point blank if anyone had ever told me I was Intersex. I said no. He said, "I really think you are. In fact, I'd go so far as to diagnose you right now." And that's how I found out. :)
I'm really worried I might be intersex. I'm trans, yes, but had been experiencing medical issues (high testosterone, getting my period late, body hair, v pain, etc) since even before my transition that I always brushed off. I'm really worried I might come off like I want attention despite the serious pain I've been experiencing..
PCOS.
this is kinda stuff is often PCOS or NCAH. PCOS more commonly
If you've been experiencing serious pain, you should see a doctor.
Recently learned im intersex as a trans woman, this video really reassured me, thank you
I found out by looking through one of my documents that said DSD so I looked it up. It has been kept a secret from me so I had to do my own research and I am still trying to get my medical records but they won' t let me..
Hey Ellie, that sucks, and is not OK. Have you seen the document for tips on trying to get them? interactadvocates.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/interACT-intersex-resource-FAQ-Medical-Records.pdf
Lol, my parents said the doctor's office burnt down with my records...
Call their medical records phone number...if they are a part of a Kaiser or a big company you can call them directly if you are not give your records. This is a big legal no-no for them to have destroyed childhood medical records.
Hey, thank you for this video! I fall into both the pre-teen and adulthood categories and I'm literally just putting it together. I just bawled at the early onset puberty with varied secondary sex characteristics thing. That was me! I was assigned male at birth, I had facial hair and breast development by like 10, came out as a trans woman at like 19, and as soon as I started taking estrogen, progesterone, and anti-androgens, my body was like Ok cool we're good now. Every time i've googled this question, I've gotten more confused and triggered. As an author and a public speaker, I'm not sure I'm ready to claim this identity publicly quite yet, but this is a watershed moment for me!
Thank you Tyler. All the hugs. Wishing you the best on the journey of understanding and finding answers.
This isn't entirely true though because 1. Intersex DOES NOT always "show" in the external body (chromosomes aren't genitals) 2. An Intersex body that was altered at birth is still someone born intersex.
Though from my understanding Congential Adrenal Hyperplasia (CAH) is an intersex disorder and it has nothing to with chromosomes but the adrenal glands.
Thank you for making a video that comes up for that googled question
It’s late and I’m having yet another identity crisis about my body (seems like just yesterday I finally came to terms with being disabled, needing a cane for months wasn’t enough apparently)
Because like, I’ve known I’m trans for a while now right? But I always feel so out of place in trans spaces because my body just doesn’t match what other trans people are talking about if that makes sense? Like I’m afab but without any medical intervention my puberty like stoped (no more periods, no more breast development, no more growing taller) when I was like just turning 12, i remember at the time I was excited no more periods seemed great! But then like as I started joining trans spaces I’ve felt even weirder about my body because like I have body hair that grows the way people sevral months on T describe it, and my voice is lower than most afab people I know including some people who have been on T for a long time and do voice training, I haven’t experienced a period since I was 11 so I don’t get dysphoria around that
And then I started seeing more and more posts from people who are trans and intersex, and I just feel like I relate to those experiences more sometimes if that makes any sense?????
It’s the middle of the night, I’ve cried about this twice, I still really feel like I can’t consider myself part of this community, but I still feel better for some reason? I don’t know, I’m rambling. If anyone reads this and has anything helpful to say I’d love to hear
I really can feel you ❤,
me too I cried a lot, I can't tell my family about my feelings, I born as a male but I feel that I am female, with the social media the way they treated transgender people I start scared of transgender or I start identifying myself queer and I really don't want to change my gender I just want to be male but looks more feminine, for now I did hormone test and my estradiol is high as a male, and the doctor checked my body, the doctor thought i am taking medication to increase my estrogen but i am not taking actually and the doctor asked me to do MRI test to check if there female organism, I will do it soon I hope there are female organism so i can tell my family that i am intersex and they can't control me or say the worng from me😭😭😭
Though I'm DFAB, my speaking voice ranges from 132 Hz to 65 Hz. In range, timbre, tessitura, and passagio, I'm a developing bass-baritone. There are some DFABs who can sing great C2s but their third and fourth octaves are very alto/contralto/soprano. Though my D2-C2 are fry-ish, I can't get beyond the E4 in chest voice.
Even as a child, I had a low, scratchy voice. I didn't sound like the boys (too quiet, too little vocal weight) or like the girls (too much vocal weight, too dark in vocal quality).
Hi it's me Francis, it's been years since I been on ispace. I do not know if you remember me but I just thought about you today and looked you up as I remember you have a channel. I was thinking of reaching out and talking to the intersex community again I met some good people such as yourself. I been away because despite my pattern of isolating myself due to depression and anxiety. It gets lonely and I tend to feel alone in this world. I might reach out on ispace again and maybe even join calls again soon as I have been invited but did not attend due to my struggles in my life. I am 23 now and I remember I joined ispace when I was 17 and first was learning about being intersex and learning more about my specific variation and how it affects me such as hormonally. My experience was as I grew more comfortable seeing different bodies that did not fit under the male and female binary. I became more open about sharing what I was actually going through. But yes I agree with your points in this video, at once point I bought into the gatekeeping as I empathized with the struggles some intersex people go through. But over time I came to realize, yes there is awful stories out there however it's no excuse to make someone else feel less valid because of your pain. I seen things in the intersex community such as people trying to make others show there medical records as proof, even someone saying if anyone claims to be intersex they should go through invasive tests to prove it. I mean it is not always easy to prove as there is a wide variety of variations some very subtle such as ovotestis can appear very subtle like a mosaic pattern and the mixed tissue can be inside the gonad where the only way to prove it is an MRI. That is what happened with my sibling. Mosaicism or chimerism at times is found at random or when being tested at times depending on your type of mosaicism can only be proved when multiple samples from various parts of your body are tested and even then it is impossible to test every single part of your body. And there are some people with obvious intersex signs who do not want to get tested because of the nature in the medical community. Medical records even expire depending on where you live, like here in Canada they expire and update every 10 years, also not everyone carries there medical records with them sometimes they are kept away with your health care provider. By trying to get people to 'prove it' is ironically not that different in ways from republicans trying to get peoples chromosomes tested before they use the bathroom. I even seen the right accuse intersex people online on youtube of not really being intersex and just trans but covering it up so they can be accepted. Which is there way of saying they don't want to believe intersex exists so they can feel there bigotry towards trans people is valid. However I understand this comes from a place of pain for the intersex people who do this. Every intersex variation is different to the point the experiences can be vastly different. No intersex variation is more valid then another, we all have one thing in common despite our differences. We have bodies that do not fit under the male and female sex binary. Ironically the 'medical record people' make it hard to even come out in your own community.
“...What is this the Westminster???” Another great video Hans! I was medicalized from birth, after the karyotype from my amniocentesis didn’t match my visibly female body. Apparently my doctors thought it was super important to get to the bottom of this right at birth, as if I was dying or something. I had my gonadectomy at 3 and didn’t find out about all this until I was 13. Again it was mostly medicalized and there wasn’t much emotional support until I demanded it in my early 20s.
Thank you for exploring these issues so our community can be more welcoming! 💜💛
I hit puberty super early in life and had body hair at age 9 and was shaving at age 11, but never felt like a true male. My muscles never developed, I was always weak, and didn't care for sports. I had bloody stools starting in my tweens as well. At age 25, my hair started falling out due to high testosterone yet at age 37, I started growing breasts, my hips widened, my glutes became soft and curvy, my back curved, I started expecting mood swings once a month and started bleeding once a month without having stools. My private shrunk, I started orgasming for minutes at a time, and my semen is clear. At age 40, I don't need a doctor to tell me I'm part Female.
I just realized that you've clearly captioned all of your videos, which is more than most anyone on UA-cam does. Just another reason that this is the best UA-cam channel! You are going to change the world (surely, it's already happening)
Aww, thanks! That means a lot. 💜 Access is important.
Im afab transmasc but have alot of male biological traits/secondary sex characteristics and my partner suggested i may be intersex because of how many 'male' traits i have without being on hrt and decided to look up what classifies someone as being intersex to hopefully figure it out without having to go to a doc about it,
I didn't deal with puberty out of the norm for a female it was just really early and I'm built like a man broad shoulders narrow hips this was evident at around 8 or 9. But other than that my puberty was typical just a little testosterone driven and i started before 8 I went through it at 6 on 7 but normal female development.
I am a female with broad shoulders and high level of muscular density. I read in the Intersex about H Antigen Factor, which affects females before birth, bathing their brain in excess masculinity, but the testes don't descend, we are born with female bodies but male brains, higher level of aggressivity and libido and logical thinking, essentially a serious tomboy for life... I used to want to transition but now I see life from a place of accepting myself as is, it's very freeing. My husband is the reverse, a feminine male since birth, we fit like a glove.
@@nikkijubilant Is there anywhere I can read more about what you mentioned in your second sentence? I have normal genitals and a period. Yet I've always noticed differences in me from my peers. I have about 10 characteristics that are masculine. Ive always wondered if I am intersexed from a young age without knowing the name for it.
I found out i have pcos today and... here i am 😂 i never really thought i could be intersex except maybe a year or two ago. I m 22 now.
Love this video! Does such a great job breaking down the fine line between gatekeeping and keeping our community safe.
I have nothing to add, but love the videos you're putting out, here's a comment for the algorithm :)
thank you kindly! 🤠
I had suspicions for as long as I had memories (circa age 3) that I did not quite fit with boys. I had a precocious puberty (first pubes at 7) which seemed to go both ways and stopped early leaving me with a shorter stature than all the other kids my age or my family, voice slightly descended, ridiculously athletic, no body hair and no facial hair. My parents denied anything might be wrong with me, so it was only in my 40s with a diagnostic of severe infertility and slight breast growth in my 30s I finally gave a real try for a diagnosis. I'm suspected 45X/46XY (and second best hypothesis is some disorder of SBHG) and on a waiting list for mosaicism / genetic testing.
You might also see on your medical records that it mentions 'undifferentiated tissue' found during surgery in relation to those organs.
I found out during age 18 and recently also I just got my medical records since parents passed away, and I knew I was different I felt it and also I noticed inside my vagina area had all this rippled scar tissue like I was cut and stuff and I thought that looked very odd and then I found out from someone to help me understand them they said that the labia was fused together and they had to cut me it looks like something a surgeon would make anyhow to me, and I noticed my clit also has no skin and as no hood and it comes out in a different spot and it resembles a penis when it is erected/aroused and I know clits swell up and stuff but mine gets long and resembles more of a penis with a head.
I always felt like my puberty was never completed. I'm a 25 year old AMAB and people still tell me I look like a teen. I have very few hair on my body. My facial hair pattern is similar to a female with PCOS.
My voice never got deep.
Couldn't grow a beard if I wanted to but I'm trans so I'm glad I don't grow a beard :P
Sometimes the body realises of dyscomfort related to masculinisation or feminisation and finds ways to stop the effect because of the way the body was affected by an other hormonal balance which it still seeks.Personally this is my experience of my sex development,I have memories of feeling things not functioning as my body sought since being a baby,while i definitely wouldnt dare dismiss someone who experiences gender in a more "spiritual/soul" based or more related to expression of clothes I definitely found my experience to be highely physical and a knowledge how things should be physically not being,I wonder if you can relate to this at all.
I found out on a DNA test when my son was born and I was my son I just gave birth to's uncle not just his momma. They did the test four times to be sure and acted very shocked and confused. At heart I think I always knew.
This is food for thought. I've always felt like something was up with me. My voice is lighter and my p--nis has always been small. (I've been with enough guys to confirm the comparison). I decided to take hormones and be honest with myself. I'm happier as woman and my mind has never been clearer. After a few weeks on estrogen I began to engage with my emotions and think of things in a more intricate way. The concept of emotional intelligence was new to me, but now is my focus.
That being said, I feel very strongly that I am intersex. I wanted to take a test because I felt it would be dishonest. Maybe this is true and I shouldn't bother with it. But can I Identify with people I feel such a strong connection with? Being trans, I understand that I don't have to justify my trans-ness to anyone else. I know where I feel comfortable. Not in the dead center. Lean closer to F than M, but not by much.
I guess I could say I know me. I've been through a lot of soul searching and seeking to come to this understanding. I just don't want to be disrespectful. That scares me so much that just thinking about it right now is bringing me to tears.
I've been slowly finding out for the past year or so, recognizing my traits of "abnormal" / unexpected puberty plus it was precocious. I've gone through a lot of medical trauma seperate from it but quite a bit directly related too, even some recently. Where I live now is a horrible place to try to personally figure out if you have a chronic or congenital thing medically especially if it's unconventional in some way. At this point I know almost for sure I'm intersex despite not having a formal diagnosis because I have almost every symptom, at least two of which are medically documented and one I am getting treated for but doctors are too negligent to look into themselves, of nCAH and I've had so many of the experiences it's so refreshing to speak with others.
i remember being worried that i was just another trans person seeking something that justified my identity, and maybe at some small points i was, but looking at things more objectively i see the very obvious natural differences in my body and have come to accept despite the negligence of doctors, i don't need the approval of those who hurt me to tell me i am who i am. i find it ridiculous i have to let the same people who abused and neglected me when they were supposed to help me to be the same ones to define my identity. Saying you need medical validation to call yourself intersex is hypocrisy.
Can you tell me your symptoms? You sound kinda fake untill you at least list them
so well said
@@cheshire4666 Thank you! Update as well I now think chimerism is on the table for a diagnosis, my mom was more at risk for giving it to a child because of her PCOS and what she was talking. I also realized I have abnormal genitalia 🙃
I love love love your videos! Not only informative but very funny. I’m so glad that you are doing this series because it’s a really important thing to bring this topic into the spotlight. It’s great to have living proof that the strict gender binary is a big lie and that intersexed people are not abnormal or mistakes. Thank you very much for being open when society still wants to keep it locked away behind so much stigma.
lots of dots I didnt really connect or have words about cause I didnt know about such things. Kinda obvious in hindsight buh meh... like having girl bones, storing fat like a girl. Had awwful acne during puberty, awful anxiety - like crippling levels of cortisol through my 20's. No one would help me or even consider something was biologicaly wrong with me. When I hit my 30's my body started to relly fill out when I was 35 I stopped doing upper chest excersies at the gym the breast fat/tissue was growing as well to a point that was geting akward. I never had a very "man" shape, allways struggled to build muscle and keep it. Then around 37 I started getting periods... ad thats when I peiced things together and did research... like magic my hormone straved brain and body started working like a normal persons. I cant even pass as for androginious or as male anymore, which has been like its own weird ass episode of "Sliders" but real life... Nature seems to have made me a hermaphrodite with both organs and outcomes with that. Overall though I am pretty happy finally fitting into myself and my biochemistry comfortably. Delving into stuff deeper biology plays a pretty huge role, even stuff like the experiance of sex and other drives matters and is observable, even if activists are like trying to ignore or erase those facts in favor of a subjective anything goes social constructionalism they depend on normalizing? Prob why its so hard as intersex, when theres so much energy put into effectivly erasing us and biological realities and outcomes... I know I spent most my life trying to figure out what is wrong with my male firends, and how they seem driven and motivated in ways I simply dont seem to operate lol. For example I have a pet theory that the biological male brain might give a bit of a reward for acting on or getting postive feedback with intracting with the oposite sex. What else would compel male behaviour such as going out of ones way to comment on a womans body from a vehical moving 40 miles an hour? Thats a lot of work and effort, there has to be a reward for that or else no one would spend the effort, and women don't seem to share the same scope of drive and behaviour. Theres diffrences... I mean this is the basis justifying transition, before a lot of confusing activism I guess? I have a mistrust of doctors in general they seem to want nothing to do with you if you are "nonstandard" with "nonstandard" problems... Iv been made uwelcome by that lot of medicalizer intrsex people in groups, and Im not dysphoric and dont understand trans ocused groups and people... I fit nowhere, videos like this make me feel not crazy and not alone.... thanks for everything you do Hans.
I have hesitated to say I'm both Intersex and Trans for the reasons you pointed out here, but it does explain my life experience the best. It's also the reason I didn't realize I was both until later in life (have Klinefelters but enjoyed having a more feminine/less masculine puberty and never tried to have kids). I was misdiagnosed with low testosterone at 40 (actually no testosterone) and that's when my medical trauma started. I'm finally off T and on Estrogen and transitioning (de/retransitioning?) and am so much happier. I also usually say that I'm "maybe intersex" because I thought you did need chromosome proof ... but that changes today. Thanks.
Im super confused. I've been wondering whether im intersex for the longest time, but cannot find anything for certain. I am also trans (ftm), so after researching a bit a while back, i came to the conclusion that i must of just been trying to justify myself. But things still dont feel like they add up. Growing up, i used to get bullied for being super hairy and 'smelling like a boy' and after i came out a lot of people thought i was already on testosterone, and some just thought i was a cis dude.
Now, i have finally started testosterone, and when i took my testosterone levels a month on they were ABNORMALLY high, but weren't being converted into estrogen, meaning my body was able to handle it. Now i'm investigating my anatomy and doing more in depth research, but i don't know whether im just going on a wild goose chase. Do you think these signs point towards being intersex? Or should i just accept that everyones body is different and that i dont need to label my experience?
jesus god im so glad to see this comment-I'm a trans guy as well but I'm pre t and I'm living trough the exact same shit. I hope you find answers
@@cheshire4666The ONLY way that trans women can have periods is if they were born intersex. Other than that, it's not possible. I PROMISE I'm a Trans ally, but I'm just stating facts. Intersex trans women can have periods. I was born male, and I still am, and I do experience stomach cramps, but I don't THINK it's a period. I never had blood coming out of me. P.S. I DO identify as male, and I hope I'm not intersex.
I found out via 23&me at age 22. Made a lot of sense about hernias and balls dropping! I am thankful to still have one of mine haha
Very well made video again! You always describe things so well--clearly and kindly. And I love the little gimmicks you do in the ending (I laughed quite a bit at the truscum part, plus the whacking ableism, white supremacy, and patriarchy part).
Lovely video as always:) I found out when I learned more about the term intersex and researched it, slowly coming to the conclusion that an earlier op was coming very close to the experiences other intersex people had.
I am finding out at 40 years old. Aromatase excess syndrome. Normal testosterone, crazy high estrogen. Normal testes and build. I had a mastectomy after I had a bad experience transitioning to female and terrible time on estrogen over a 3 year period. That was 20 years ago. And after wanting to transition again tests reveal I have high estrogen (250 pg/ml) and low-normal testosterone (340). I was always masculine but felt like a tomboy, like women, wanted always to be one, but born as a man. Didn’t know I would have grown breasts naturally.. anyway now going through struggles at 40.
Killer video as always Hans!
Thank you!
I have male genitals but i have like breasts, im infertile and dont produce male hormones. Ive only discovered the word recently. Am i intersex? I also never went through puberty and im 27
Such a great video, thanks for sharing. This is a good conversation to have that the rest of the LGBTQ+ community should hear. I can imagine how frustrating it is for people to want to be intersex like it's a cool accessory to wear. There have been times I've heard allosexuals say "I'm basically asexual now" when they have broken up and are temporarily staying abstinent. It trivializes a whole community so I would get frustrated too if I were in your shoes.
As for the intersex stuff, one thing from a past video of yours has been stuck on my mind. The way you broke down different sex characteristics was helpful, but at one point you mentioned that even one characteristic would be enough to be intersex. For me, my sex is female but I do grow facial hair and am pretty certain I have high testosterone. My sister also has high testosterone and has PCOS. I've been pressured by my family to do something about my facial hair to be "datable", I've had children laugh at "my beard", and I don't want to test my testosterone levels cause I don't want to be pushed into taking birth control like my sister. Frankly, I would love it if I could rock my beard but I know that would bring a lot of stigma so I don't.
It feels like such a small thing that I don't know if I could call myself intersex for it. And I can't find information about my situation anyway or know how common it is for female sex to have facial hair. I'm fine with just being panromantic ace. I'm already in some cool communities. I'm just still confused about there being a definition for intersex that could include me when I never considered it before. And I wouldn't want to intrude with my little experiences when there are bigger issues intersex people face that they need support and change for.
Sorry to ramble. Really love your channel
I think if you feel comfortable with your beard then you should be able to keep it. Maybe dye it a cool color that you like and just find ways to enjoy it. :) You are unique and it is okay. :)
Hi im 15 and been wondering for years now why my puberty was so much different from others. (I am a girl)
1. Chest. Basically nothing grew, at all.
2. Hair. A lot of hair.
3. Body. My body is muscular and "wide". Especially my shoulders. If im wearing a dress it looks like a muscular man wearing it which just doesnt really look good.
4. Face. I have a very strong jaw which looks horrible.
5. Periods. I often get them only every 2 months. And last time i havent gotten it for 3 months.
Also... facial hair. I have a small mustache, and often very thick and dark hair grows under my chin.
Another thing is, no other female in my family has had this problem
Could it be a possibility that i might be intersex in some way?
Hi! I know you asked for intersex experiences, but I'm here to ask if mine counts. I'm still trying to work out exactly what my diagnosis means and if I should claim the intersex label.
I'm a 19yo AFAB trans person, and I've been recently diagnosed with POCs. In the last few days I've stumbled into people talking about POCs and intersex labels, and it got me thinking a lot. I've done hormonal bloodwork before, and it has always come back within the range of cis women until the last few months, alongside people commenting on how they thought I had started HRT. On one side, the term intersex technically fits. But on the other, I've never had any intersex experiences; so the label feels unearned. That might be because my trans experience overlapped with it, or because of the protocols in the country I live in. In any case, is there any way to figure out what would be the most accurate way to deal with this?
Thanks for any advice!
I actually have a video on this! ua-cam.com/video/h-jN13Cw7XU/v-deo.html There's resources on these questions in the description. Wishing you all the best in figuring it out, know you will.
@@hihellohans thank you so much!
I had hormonal weirdness since I started puberty, and I've been wondering if I could be intersex. I'm physically considered typical, but I have a ton of body hair and a baritone/tenor voice. My parents and doctors didn't like my masculine features and coerced me into going on estrogen when I was 13. My body responded horribly to it. I had horrible cramps that gave me whiplash. My periods lasted for around a month/month and a half, with the heaviest bleeding I've ever had. I'm also trans, so having a lot of estrogen in my body made my depression worse. I had to resort to hiding my pills to stop the pain.
@@marciocian9818 Do not ask for advice from UA-camrs! Try to find someone who is actually medically qualified.
i found out at 32 when i started noticing a lump in my breast - tests taken 47 XXY KS / Intersex
My husband has all the symptoms of KS
This channel and it's videos are amazing for informing people about intersex without bias or anything.
I have not found out yet but I have had experienced some of the symptoms you mentioned. I either had too much testosterone or produced less testosterone especially during puberty. However, I have always felt different since I remember as a child and I didn't know why I felt that way it really boggled my mind. I was mistakenly called a girl or of female pronouns before and after puberty and through out my teen years and up until 30 years old. I started aging fast after that at 35. Hmmm... what is wrong with me? help me understand! 🤔🙏❤
I am really enjoying the range of topics. Long may they continue!
I stan the accent. Also the tooth necklace.
Late to watching this but: I got sort of a late diagnosis of PCOS, 17/18 (I forget honestly), considering my symptoms started at age 8, and that has a whole story behind it but I started adopting the intersex label because I ran into it when I was about 12 and thought it fit my body because for the longest time thought maybe something was /wrong/ with my body and the experiences I had with my family because of my hyperandrogenism was not good in the slightest, and my own personal bodily effects from it causing insufficient estrogen when I was in the diagnosis process just made me feel that way again so I actually ended up researched into the term after I got diagnosed with it, read the different definitions people have for it, and made sure it wasn't offensive for me to use the label for myself by non-PCOS having intersex people. It's really helped me accept my body, understand my experiences better, and just hate the systems we have in place. Sometimes it's just hard calling myself intersex publicly BECAUSE of the gatekeepers.
Same experience for me!
The information on intersex is very limited, i've been looking and i feel more like an alien on this planet everyday. That secret that you want to tell but just can't and its driving you up the bloody wall.
This video answered a bunch of my questions.
I had to get as much information from my Grandmother about my birth before she lost her mind to dementia, my mother will not tell me a single thing. I know I was born very early at 22 weeks, she had miscarriages before, she smoked up until 2 months after she found out I had been made and my father also smoked. Mom dressed me in her clothing and said she always wanted a girl, I was a boy and did boy things, until I brought home my friends sisters barbie dolls, then I couldn't be trusted because I liked girls clothing and had someone elses dollies in my room.
I noticed my body didnt start changing until late teens, I didnt actually start growing facial hair until age 25. By the time I reached age 21 my breasts had grown and were female shaped with a staggering 34DD, keeping in mind I was 6'2" 165lbs far from fat. I started exploring the idea of wearing a bra (how to hide that or breasts from everyone), I had developed wide set female hips, and butt to go with, I even worked out at the gym long enough to see an attractive hour glass figure. Yeah womens clothing tends to fit like a glove. Never once did I see that typical male chiseled chest and male figure that all my guy friends had. Now I'm 39 and while I've filled out to a 38C and I gained 2" more in height and have a squeaky voice now.
Had a hormone test done at age 36 and it showed testosterone was very low 200's. They didnt check Estradial and I wish my Doctor had. March of 2019 I was diagnosed with cancer in a testicle they removed that and hormones didnt really change it did give my body the opportunity to live on more estrogen which has been nothing new.
Every doctor I have complained to about having female features just blew it off, oh you cant have breasts and have facial hair, hips and the female hormones in a significant quantity and survive. :-/ My primary flat out refused to order any further testing to find out why my body produces so much estrogen, its not like losing a testis caused male hormones to drop from 900 to near nothing. Removing that testis didnt change any hormone levels. I supplement a lot of vitamins and minerals to make up for lost effects that hormones help play a role in moving around. I intend to find someone who will let me do HRT but not to the extent of going to male hormones, that's not the right treatment, just a better balance of estrogen, testosterone and anything else. Imagine the Urologists face when he read my numbers back to me and asked if I wanted to do TRT and I turned him down. Estrogen does weird things but guess who is happier with it flowing like a river.
I called today to see about a karyotype chromosome analysis those are expensive (cough $455) this is why you answered my question on that. I was truly only trying to figure out why my estrogen has been 395 pg/mL which is roughly what it is for a menstruating female but I live on this hormone production everyday.
The last thing is I have the typical male reproductive part minus the ability to reproduce I was sterile before and nothing has changed, everyone says well you can have kids with only one testis. No you don't understand there is nothing there its the size of a baby pea.
Can I be amab(I use he him pronouns), have all male sexual organs, but very low testosterone, can I be intersex?
(My father is intersex btw)
Are there any intersex conditions where only hormones are affected?
Yes there are like congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) the adrenal glands are effected which in turn affects the hormones relating to sex development
I found out a few years before my mom passed. She told me I was born with what looked like Both Male and female genitals. At age 40 . I've always referred to myself as TRANS.
i LOVED this video. so well explained. you answered every question i had and more
I really don’t know at this point! I have a working PP but when I was 14. I had painful breast, sharp stabbing feelings in my stomach, and my body is very feminine. I don’t have a prominent adam’s apple, my voice is pretty high. My facial features are gender bending…. If I’m no intersex then I must be an alien😂
I wish I wasn't intersex as I was not treated well as a child during and after surgery. What your speaking of brings back really bad memories of those days you wish had never happened.
As a ten year old this whole process wasn't very good. The first surgery was bad and then a nun slapped me because I was crying out in pain. If that were not enough clearly things were hide from me the very young child next to me was changed into a girl from what I was told by this crazy therapist. she spoke to me like this was some form of punishment or something. The truth is is I felt like I should have been born a girl and never told anyone of this. Yet somehow this child was being changed into One. was this some sort of punishment? I was so fearful of this whole process that I shut down emotionally and never spoke to anyone of this until I told my wife many many years later.
After years of work I came to terms with who I am and even have embraced that part of me. Yes I do fall into the transgender spectrum. My DNA is male but little else is.
My parents always said they thought I was going to be a boy. I'm enby now but AFAB. My former therapist lent me a book about an intersex person in France without me ever even thinking I was not cishet then. I get marked as male on paperwork all the time (literally had to fight with a Drs office to get covid results bc of this). Truly wondering if I'm intersex and my parents hid it or didn't know
Well for me I have a y chromosome that's enough to be intersex I got nothing else not even the diagnosis. Well at least in depthly. Just enough where like the dna test showed I have a y chromomse but it doesn't affect anything I'm still classed as female even though I've always thought I was male before all this anyway lol. It's like that where I'm very similar to trans people. In that i was born female but I have always known i was male since I knew the mental difference from a man and a woman.
It's possible to be intersex with "normal" functioning genitalia?
@@rosexx241
Yeah
bro I tought it was weird to pass 8 months without period (like a long-break) lol (I'm also a ftm), but I think it is....normal to not have it every month- thanks for the info
I don't know. I'm just a bit more confused because I have most of those signs but there is no way i can certainly say it. I mean, it has to be beautiful to grow in up some place where there is medical attention and a less hostile enviroment. You could take that like an explanation why some trans hope it would be their case. Because in some places we have to justify and verify our own existence.
In context my puberty brough me a non masculine voice (i had to fake it), bigger hips, some periodic pain inside there (not always too strong, not soft neither, not always regular, sometimes really threw me down) that was with me (the strong pain) until i started my HRT (estradiol). So it would help me a lot. I'm living as a woman now, and i'm fine than ever. But it would give me an explanation for all that pain, also it would allow me to get a better medical care and fix my documents which means a better chance to get a job or going back to visit my family. If is not i'm fine than ever living as a woman but if it is true it would help me a lot. I guess i will never know, because there isn't a doctor who dare to spend time to take a look in there in a legally man younger than 50. I guess i would have to wait until 50 or 55 so that zone could be examined
Love this! What I have been saying for years. Great video!
thank you a lot for this video I am a young person really struggling with some problems such as looking at pictures and medical stuff of what my "female body should look like" and there are quite a few things that don't fit what I have at all and I definitely know I don't have a male body and I also have a never ending period (not joking) so I have been very very confused and honestly slightly scared because now I'm very very worried about my family forcing me into surgeries if a doctor finds out and diagnoses me or hormone therapy I'm having a very hard time accepting I am intersex out of fear of well mainly doctors and my dad is a paramedic himself and been through a lot of medical training and stuff so I'm also scared about him agreeing with doctors :/
I'm having such a hard time. I'm experiencing a lot of the things you're explaining
I appreciate your help with intersex. I thought I was intersex ,but I was told I was only transgender male. I'm glad, though, I found out later than never.
I have several friends who are intersex. 2 of my friends are twins, XXY. I still am learning from you.
I am promoting: "How do I know if I'm intersex?" Video essay. Thank you for making these videos. Especially since I have personally been very hurt by gate-keepers when I first came out. I love your sense of humor! I now help people in my Beyond the Binary Gender Nonconformist group and have told them pretty much what you do in this video. I am glad to know we think similarly about this topic. Intersex born, Dr. Cary Gabriel Costello is thinking intersex traits could be as high as 1 in 150. So this is a lot of people. Endosex Variations and Intersex Variations are vast, and where we draw the line can be confusing. I refuse to gatekeep now, even though over three years ago I did that to two people and have apologized to them. I see the harm and stopped with those two questioning people. However, can you clarify about the medical involvement of knowing that you are intersex when it involves medical proof in order to get an intersex birth certificate and if you think this is okay or not? To change your birth certificate we have to have signed medical letters. Doesn't matter if you are transgender or intersex. It sadly takes medical proof that you send in with your forms to change your birth certificate. For me, it also took a certified court order of proof from the court. If you want to call it that, what Sara Kelly Keenan, Hida Viloria and I went through to get this birth certificate is serious "gatekeeping". Which will also mean that not everyone will be able to achieve an intersex birth certificate that should get one; but also keeps those out who shouldn't. It is a mess really. Much love to you and thank you for answering and sharing your thoughts about this. Here is my TEDx on receiving my intersex birth certificate: Born Intersex: we are human! bit.ly/TEDxMxAnunnakiRayMarquez
WOW, I watched your Ted talk. Well done. Very important message and brave of you to stand up there and tell everyone, including me. Thank you. Much love to you and your family.
Im 15 and I grew up believing I was female, I have female genitalia, breasts and a menstrual cycle however as I got older my face started developing in a more masculine way. Im attracted to both genders but more sexually attracted to females and I feel so guilty about it. My parents said in my ultrasound they were told that I was a male but when I was born they saw that I had a female part instead. My dad has 14 kids and I'm somehow his only girl. I feel like I was born in the wrong body or something. I wanna be female but I'm so tired of feeling like I dont fit into feminine standards and I get mistaken for a boy even if I dress normally. I go to an only girls school and everyone always makes comments and asks if I'm a boy or a girl.
I think we’re all going thru a similar thing, I’m 15 and I have a lot more masculine features as well, I’m praying I’m not intersex. I just wanna feel like I’m really a girl 😭 I feel like no guy will ever love me if I am intersex.
@@whowroteholdencaulfield same 😭😭 ive already made plans to get facial feminization surgery when i get older because no guy will love me like this.
The reason I wonder if I'm intersex is not because I think it would justify being trans, but because I had a lot of signs of possibly being intersex before and after I was born. But doctors never looked further into it because my private area looked and appeared normal upon birth.
But I've had absolutely insane hormonal fluctations and sensitivities all my life that really have no other explanation.
While testosterone helps me to treat my gender dysphoria, it also helps me to regulate my hormones.
My body appears to have violent reactions to Estrogen and other hormones often associated with people who have ovaries.
Edit: Both my mom and I are 95% sure that I could be intersex. But I have yet to find a doctor willing to look into it. There's just not a lot of information or research about the signs of being intersex in the medical community.
Well I'm just finding out If I am at this point.
When I was 14 I started developing tiny breasts and people used to make fun of me for them. Was chubby at the time so I thought it was part of that, regular gynecomastia I would have to take care of later in life.
Then when I was 19 years old I started to lose weight and do more exercise, only to notice that my body was taking an hourglass shape and my hips started to grow wider, my butt started to get rounder and my pelvic posture kinda developed a natural tilt.
Then in my 20's I started feeling dripping-like sensations on my perineum. Along with extreme mood swings, blood in my urine and now recently cramps...boys shorts are starting to fit me less and less...
I am sure now that there's a 90% possibility I am intersex. At this point, if I get a medical diagnosis and it turns out I'm not, I would be even more surprised 😂
I'm so confused, I've always wondered if I'm intersex because I was assigned male at birth and have a penis and testicles, but when I hit puberty at 11, I grew wider hips and my voice didn't drop and I saw some breast development, but I developed an eating disorder and lost A LOT of weight (which ofcourse meant I didn't have much fat to redistribute), I didn't get anymore breast developement, and at 12-13 I had a slight voice drop and leg hair came in, at 14 I got a tiny bit of stomach hair and some chin strands here and there, and at 15-16 my chin hair seemingly maxxed out and has only increased a small amount with almost no other facial and body hair. My voice hasn't dropped at all, my shoulders aren't very braud and my skin is soft, my face is feminine and I almost always get called ma'am in public (part of the ma'am thing could probably be attributed to my presentation, I forgot to mention I'm a trans woman). Anyway I think I may be intersex but really don't know, everyone thinks I'm taking estrogen even my doctors ask if I'm secretly taking it and I'm not, I just have naturally more feminine characteristics.
Love you and very informative
I have a connective tissue disorder that causes me to have long limbs and a skinny body, however, sometimes I feel I might also be intersex since my face looks feminine and young and my voice isn't deep and I never grew that much body hair, I'm 24 and a "male", however, I think my testosterone is fine. I have a sexuality. It works. So, I don't know.
I assume you mean a form of Ehlers Danlos? That does tend to cause variances in appearance, and tends to appear in populations with less hair overall. My doctors think I have the hypermobile version too.
@@AlexMint No, I have something super rare, chromosome 17p13.3 duplication with marfanoid habitus.
Is clitoralmegaly itself enough of a diagnostic aspect to be determined intersex?
I'm not an advocate for strict medical definitions of what "is" intersex enough. But even by those terms, I know many folks consider that within the umbrella.
@@hihellohans I am a transman but long before I came out and such, I had wondered if I met intersex conditions or not. Just for self awareness.
@@shadedleityeil1976 Do not ask for advice from UA-camrs! Try to find someone who is actually medically qualified.
Everything is connecting when puberty hit my body didn’t do like a normal female it did like a male and I have to live like that thanks for helping me out on what I am
My biology teacher mentioned intersex in 5th grade, but did not mention how many different variations of there are.
I havent really been told or had too many tests through my whole life. I mean I get blood work now related to my hrt. Only have had 3 tests so far over the past 2 yeara and a half. My levels are all good to go. I dont have to take a whole lot of estrogen and I have wonderful results. But I also never really considered it until recently as a possibility with recent knowledge. My puberty was meh as far as male puberty. I got hairy hahaha but my voice didnt get too deep. I had to try to sound male. I didnt really feel like male puberty hit me till like 16 17 years old. I never really went through a full puberty. I seen what all expected. I got a lil bit of growth in my adams apple. Which i hated. My female puberty 2 years so far. It going wonderfully and my body is reacting the way its supposed to. Others say im on a low dose with my levels looking good is probably because my bodys naturally producing e
I have been wondering if I’m intersex. Despite being AFAB, puberty made my voice deep, gave me more hair, more muscle, and I get periods only three to five times per year. A lot of my puberty experiences have been things I’ve had in common with my AMAB friends rather than my AFAB friends. Also my “parts” look different than what I always saw in sex ed. I talked to my doctor, she just offered me estrogen, which I said no to. That was the end of the conversation. Never got a diagnosis or anything. Been considering bringing it up again.
There’s a 1/10 condition where female’s produce slightly more testosterone then normal… which some people define as intersex, but you can’t really test for it
I found out because a blood test showed that I had very hight testosterone
I mean i am ftm but without any interferance from me, my body is terrible at being female and my doctor is stumped. i dont have very good acces to healthcare so its gonna be more trouble than its worth persuing further so im thinking maybe i can get an incling for whats up cuz intersex would make a world of sense
Well, I was hand made into a boy, but did not masculinize during puberty. That is a long time ago, and nobody knew what to call it, I was simply different. I very slowly feminized, and switched over to present as a female, and got my genitals corrected. But to change my German birth certificate, I had to be diagnosed with DSD, and it had to be stated in a doctors letter. S, for some of us, it is very important to be officially diagnosed to be intersex, no matter what we call ourselves.
I know this is VERY off topic, but I love your tooth necklace :D
Thanks for acknowledging those that didn't find out until their 40's or 50's and the lies of that period in medicine and psychology. 👩🏼⚕️👍
Was 48 when we found out, but wasn't much of a surprise to us and made a hell of alot more sense then what we were lead believe all our life.
How did you find out? I have so many masculine traits as a female from my head to body.
@@Alicia-lo7ny 5 ultrasounds with no response back from the physicians till We-I finally got a response about why a 48 year old Chimera was suddenly going through hormonal changes after a lifetime of nothing plus other things that are abit to personal for the internet. We-I also similar features and hot flashes constantly since the age of 12.
Seventeen and honestly still don’t know but not sure if I should look into medical testing or not.
Im AFAB but even though my puberty was relatively “normal” it still ticked me off. Period started early and cycles can go from the usual to the one that left me anemic and stalled all other cycles since then. There’s also that I have a high amount of testosterone so right off the bat I was growing a mustache and now im finding the same pattern but with a beard + having generally very hairy body and little to no breast development. There are other things that could probably be it (hell I might even have a blood disorder) but whatever I have going on I honestly hope that I just find a clear-ish answer.
Have you considered polycystic ovarian syndrome, endometriosis, hirutism? And birth defects of the uterus? My uterus is split in half by a wall (bicornuate or septate uterus) and it bleeds differently than uterii without walls. I also have had PCOS. I take LoJamiesse birth control to control my bleeding from my fibroid which was making me anemic. I hope you can get a transabdominal ultrasound and a prescription like that. They can also look at your ovaries and uterus with that and it is way less invasive than a transvaginal ultrasound. Try going to a trauma-informed, LGBTQ+ friendly, pro-life gynecologist because the other ones are really mean and could seriously hurt you mentally and physically. Last person I saw left me in pain for three days while joking "how does it feel to be examined by a murderer" (really scary) and telling me I do not feel pain when I am screaming in pain from what she is doing. Gynecologist, Dr. Lynn Knowles in Austin or San Antonio. Don't see her. She called me her enemy and said her other enemies sent me. That confused me because I do not know her enemies. It was weird.
Also do not go to the 4 Corners ObGyn clinic in Durango Colorado because they yell a lot and will refuse to treat you with care even if you go to them immediately the day after being raped by your landlord and they will call you a liar and make up other explanations for your blood and pain, even if he stabbed you with a knife. They will tell you that you look normal. :(
i think i’m intersex because some things are really off and odd. weird that i’ve never noticed it but i hope i get to the bottom of it, man.
Thanks for sharing your wit and especially your knowledge
just found out i was intersex and this video was really helpful
i mean im pretty sure im intersex ? i suspect i have PCOS + higher androgen levels so
I’m a middle age and I think my parent’s lied to me. 😭
im amab but ive been told by multiple people that i have a femme body, especially if i wear a mask and pony tail, so im wondering if i might be intersex
I think I have PMDS but nothing is found on ultrasound, the doctor referred me for a colonoscopy bc he thinks it may be an intestine problem.
I’ve asked for a chromosome test to find out if it is but doctor said he needed evidence, but I have PMS symptoms for years with no obvious reason.
I'm not sure I want to like... list weird medical things. But also not sure who to talk to about this because my current doctors are like "Your fine" when I've had traumatic experiences and also just loss of feeling in.. You know where
Thank you so much!
I don't know yet if I'm endo or inter* and I honestly don't care.
But the way I found out I might wanna check was finding out a person scribbled through something in my child-health-book.
So the thing is, specific amounts hormones are VERY different from typically ones that afab 'should' have.
Ao it's kinda hard
But my testosterone is in the exact middle of the typical masculine spectrum. So completely different. But I can't find any information:')
For some folks, a malfunctioning pituitary gland can be the cause too (that's me!)