Felthous Alan R, Kahlon Chanchal
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience, School of Medicine, Saint Louis University, Saint Louis, Missouri, USA.
Behav Sci Law. 2025 Mar-Apr;43(2):248-260. doi: 10.1002/bsl.2705. Epub 2024 Dec 22.
As the nature of transgender condition becomes better understood and the legal rights of transgender individuals are defined through court decisions and legislation, intersexuality ought not be overlooked. Potential commonalities as well as differences between intersexual and transgender individuals, clinically and psychosexually, may be mutually informing and relevant to their legal rights in ways that could implicate mental health services. In this review, the concepts of intersexuality and Disorders of Sexual Development are defined followed by a brief synopsis of the evolution of ancient conception of hermaphroditism into the vastly heterogenous biological conditions of today referred to as DSDs. A growing corpus of scholarly literature today argues that intersex persons should be regarded as having diverse sexual characteristics and as not disordered. Nonetheless, various conditions require understanding if the intersex person is to make informed decisions and if health providers are to recognize those conditions that constitute medical emergencies. This review and analysis compares intersex with transgender persons and provides current clinical and scientific knowledge as essential background for Part II, our following article on the advancement of legal rights of intersex persons.
随着人们对跨性别状况的本质有了更深入的了解，并且通过法院判决和立法明确了跨性别者的法律权利，间性人问题不应被忽视。间性人和跨性别者在临床和心理性别方面潜在的共性与差异，可能会相互启发，并在涉及心理健康服务的方面与他们的法律权利相关。在这篇综述中，首先对间性和性发育障碍的概念进行了定义，接着简要概述了古代雌雄同体概念如何演变成如今被称为性发育障碍的极为多样的生物学状况。如今越来越多的学术文献认为，间性人应被视为具有多样的性特征且并非患有疾病。然而，如果间性人要做出明智的决定，以及医疗服务提供者要识别构成医疗紧急情况的那些状况，就需要了解各种情况。这篇综述与分析将间性人与跨性别者进行了比较，并提供了当前的临床和科学知识，作为我们后续关于间性人法律权利进展的第二篇文章的重要背景。
