Intersex Persons and Their Families in India: Critical Perspectives and Recommendations for Social Work Practice

Family is often the first site of meaning-making for children and young people, including for people with intersex variations, regarding gender and sexuality. In this chapter, I examine the role of families in the context of medicalization of intersex children and adolescents. While doctors largely determine gender assignment, families also participate in these decision-making processes. These decisions are often made on intersex infants and adolescents without their informed consent and active participation. Medical interventions for intersex people include a range of surgeries and hormone therapy in order to make their bodies adhere to binary understandings of sex and gender. Using data from semi-structured, qualitative interviews with doctors and families, I elucidate the ways in which families respond to and make meaning of the intersex diagnosis and the ensuing intersex medicalization. I highlight the need to work with families as critical sites for social work interventions. I argue that social work professionals have a critical role to play in bridging the gap in the knowledge that exists on intersex people in India and helping families to be able to make informed decisions.