Personal accounts from intersexuals who have experienced genital surgery breathe life into some otherwise dry facts. Foremost among these is that longterm studies of genital surgery are scarce as hen’s teeth.32 Nevertheless, the medical literature is rife with evidence of the negative effects of such surgery. In a survey of the existing medical articles, a colleague, Bo Laurent, and I noted mentions of scarring, which can cause insensitivity, and of multiple surgeries, which usually leave the genital area more heavily scarred than a single operation. We also found five mentions of residual pain in the clitoris or clitoral stump.33 Particularly striking was a report noting that ten of sixteen patients with clitoral recessions had clitoral hypersensitivity.34
Vaginoplasty, the general term for a variety of techniques to enlarge, reshape, or construct vaginas de novo, also carries dangers such as ‘‘dense scarring and vaginal stenosis’’35 (the obstruction or narrowing of a passage, duct, or canal). Laurent and I found ten different mentions of scarring associated with vaginal surgery. Stenosis is the most commonly listed complication.36 One cause of this narrowing of the vaginal or introital opening is scar tissue. Thus one surgical team lists keeping the vagina free of an annular scar as a goal.37 In our literature review we found that vaginoplasties, especially when performed in infancy,38 resulted in frequencies of vaginal stenosis as high as 80 to 85 percent.39
Multiple genital surgeries can have negative psychological as well as physical effects. One group of physicians concedes that the trauma of such surgery might partly cancel out its intended benefits: ‘‘if the child believes she is physically abused by medical personnel, with excessive and painful attention focused on the genitalia, the psychological adjustment may be less favorable.’’40 Personal accounts from intersexuals confirm the downside of their medical treatments. Many intersexual adults report that repeated genital examinations, often with photographs and a parade of medical students and interns, constitute one of their most painful childhood memories. Joan/John, for instance, has described his yearly visits to the Johns Hopkins clinic as ‘‘abusive’’.41
Others concur. An intersexual man pointed out to me that one method of measuring penile growth and function in intersex boys involved the doctor masturbating the boy to achieve erection. Young girls who receive vaginal surgery suffer similarly invasive practices. When an infant or toddler is operated on, parents are taught to insert a dildo so that the newly built vagina won’t close.42 Medicine’s focus on creating the proper genitals, meant to prevent psychological suffering, clearly contributes to it.43