Medicalizing gender: from intersex to DSD, from the laboratory to patient groups

The subject of this research, the medicalization of the gendered body, is a shifting object. It has changed its medical name from Intersex to DSD (Disorders -or Divergence- of Sex Development), since the beginning of this research project. Loosely speaking it addresses the gendered components of the body, and their subsequent consideration. Drawing closer, it addresses how modern medicine treats people who manifest variations of one of the gendered components of the body, inserting their bodies into pathological categories now called DSD. This shifting terrain of different modes of viewing the gendered body has grown to include many variations, no longer solely interested in the mythical hermaphrodite. The locus of this investigation is in the interaction between these patient groups and doctors in Italy.

Tratta dell’intreccio fra genere e medicalizzazione del corpo a partire da uno studio sull’intersessualità, ovvero sui “disturbi della differenziazione sessuale” (DSD). Si tratta di un insieme di sindromi legate allo sviluppo divergente di una delle componenti del sesso biologico. Per la prima volta in Italia, si fa il punto sulla natura, la storia, le rappresentazioni di questa condizione, si esamina il corpo di genere (gendered body), la sua medicalizzazione, s’indaga l’autopercezione dei soggetti in questione.