*hip hop music*
*coffee beans grinding*
*tea kettle whistling*
What's good everybody welcome back
My name is Pidgeon and this is part two
let me see where we left off ...
*audio from laptop* So they told my parents we got to take these gonads out
right now or they might become cancer
by the time your kids turns 11, to be continued...
CANCER?! Alright so here's the deal
when I was about six months of
age the doctors open me up not open me
up they stuck a needle in me and did a
test and he drew some blood and they
discovered like I said earlier I had XY
chromosomes and they told my parents
that they needed to do surgery and in
order to get this surgery to go... to make
in order to get my parents... *pop sound* so they
opened me up... *sighs* Alright, so, the doctors did a test
discovered I had XY chromosomes but they
also does that discovered that I had
internal testes now they weren't going
to tell my parents that I had internal
testes because this would destroy the
myth that they were trying to build for
my parents that I was a perfectly normal
little girl and by their standards being
an intersex person was not normal and if
they were going to tell my parents the
truth they risked my parents "raising me
differently" and me "growing up in
distress" and all this stuff that's in
the medical literature which i think is
a bunch of *clicks teeth* but anyhow they decided
instead of telling my parents the truth
which is I had which is that I had
internal testes that weren't even going to
function as testes as I grew older
because of my condition androgen IN-
sensitivity syndrome means I'm
insensitive to androgens and one of the
most well-known androgens is
testosterone so because I'm insensitive
to testosterone my body would only
develop on like a quote-unquote female
trajectory right so instead of telling my
parents the truth of this, "this
complicated story" which isn't that
complicated
they lied and they said look mr. and
mrs. Pidgeon your kid
has these has this body and everything
is ok we did some tests we did some
blood work and we and you know the body
is almost all the way to being a female
but they didn't get all the way quite
there in the uterus while they were
developing in your belly
mrs. Pidgeon so we need to help HER
along and what we notice is that she has
these uhm, gonads which are like the
things in a body that are they are what
are gonads? Ok let's start over so your
daughter SHE has gonads and these gonads
are pre ovarian ovaries *cut* Am I red now
because I just itched myself, scratched
myself, ugh my feet hurt ok so your daughter
she has these pre-formed ovaries right
*stretches* eee--ahh, the osteoporosis is real *music plays*
so they told my parents your daughter
has preformed ovaries and these
preformed ovaries or let's call them
gonads these gonads are going to develop
cancer by the time your daughter hits
puberty so why don't you let us go in
there and take these out to prevent that
risk of your daughter getting cancer in
the future I was around six months of
age at this point my parents wanting what's
best for me
gave them the green light and they went
in and took out what they were calling
preformed ovaries or gonads but in
reality were internal testes testes that
never descended and that stayed put in the
abdomen and that like I said wouldn't
even function really as testes, my body
would have blocked most of the androgens
that they would have produced, if they
produced any, and they would have, my body
would have, converted most of those
androgens into estrogen that's just part
of the magic of my condition which is an
intersex condition called androgen
insensitivity syndrome so instead of
telling my parents the truth they said
we're going to go in there we're going
to help prevent cancer we're going to
get rid of these gonads that are
preformed ovaries your daughter's fine
she's normal, they don't like to tell
parents of intersex kids that they have
an intersex kid that they have testes
and those really it looks like the main
issue it's not that big of a deal but
they really fear giving our parents the
truth it's this paternalistic culture
where doctor knows best doctor needs to
keep the parents in the shadows and keep
them in the dark about mostly everything
we'll take care of everything with our
fancy degrees and we're not going to
tell you everything because we don't
think you're capable of making the right
quote unquote decisions so the right
decisions that's to be debated right
what I think is the right decision for
intersex kids is totally different
than what doctors think is the right
decision, most doctors, and it's also
probably different than what parents
think would be the right decision if
given fully informed information so they
can make fully informed consent
so when I was 6 months of age they went
in and they took out those gonads under
the guise of that of that of that under
the guise of it preventing possible
cancer in the future so I recover from
that surgery I'm about six months old I go
home and again my parents are told
everything's fine with your daughter but
bring her back for a checkup
we want to check in with her so I went
back for a checkup and it seemed that
everything was okay
according to the doctors but there was a
new "problem" they discovered and that was
that my clitoris was just a little bit
too big for their standards, these are
the doctors again, so they scheduled me
for surgery when I was four years old to
undergo a clitoridectomy because my
clitoris according to my medical records
when stretched was a centimeter and a
half
let me say that again they scheduled me
for surgery when I was four years old
because my clitoris was supposedly too
large and according to my medical
records when stretched it was only a
centimeter and a half so the standards
for intersex care states that any
phallus, which is a clitoris or penis, any
phallus structure that goes past 1.5
centimeters when stretched, and is below
three centimeters I want to say when
stretched falls into this sort of no man's
territory and--no persons territory--and
in that range which is a very small range
we're talking 1.5 centimeters in that
territory surgery is usually what is
"necessary" so in my case they decided I
would grow up with a large clitoris and I
would just be looking down at myself and
I wouldn't understand what my gender was
and how could i be a female if I have
this big clit blah blah so they decided
to tell my parents
hey your kid, the clit, it's not that
normal
we need to go in there and we need to
just make it look
a bit smaller don't worry no we know
you've heard it's a sensitive thing but
don't worry because we're going to take
care to make sure that the nerve stays
intact and we're just going to get rid
of that extra stuff all that fluff that
no one really needs in a clitoris
anyways just don't worry about it we got it
*music* why you always lying?
so my parents, young and
afraid probably and really wanting
what's best for me thinking
the doctors are saying my daughter isn't
normal I want her to be normal okay go
ahead and do this so they do a clitoridectomy
on me I was four years old and the
doctors removed my entire clitoris now...
yes I had to pause because it's... it's a
savage move these doctors out here are
savage and they're still doing this
every single day in my city of Chicago
in your city and across the world every
single day kids are getting intersex
genital mutilation and that's what
happened to me when I was 4
*hip hop music*
intersex....ster *tongue tied*
and remember intersex surgeries OH MY GOD
and remember intersex STORIES, NOT surgeries *clicks teeth* bye
So, what is intersex? Intersex is a condition when
someone is born with sex chromosomes,
genitalia or reproductive organs that
aren't easily categorized as men or women