Medicalization of intersex and variations of sex characteristics: an analysis of the medical procedures through narratives of clinicians and intersex individuals in Turkey

Official URL: http://risc01.sabanciuniv.edu/record=b1819850 (Table of Contents)

This thesis analyzes the medical treatment procedures of intersex children and their implications based on the data I collected from interviews with clinicians who are involved in medical treatment of intersex children in research and teaching hospitals in Istanbul as well as intersex individuals who went through these treatments. I explore why, or to what extent, the early, non-consensual, and medically questionable hormonal and surgical interventions currently continue despite the challenges that have been raised against them in the last decades on the basis of principles of informed consent and respect to bodily autonomy. I argue that the conventional medical procedures rely on superficially coherent narratives of treatment based upon a biologically deterministic understanding of intersex traits and variations of sex characteristics that is separate from personhood. Furthermore, I suggest that in the context of Turkey, the dichotomy of “biological” versus “subjective” is associated with the dichotomy of “advanced” versus “backward,” in which medicalization becomes a measure of being “advanced”, or “Westernized.” This research shows the ways in which these dichotomies do not hold and argues that the medical treatments fail to provide what they promise in practice. Finally, I show how the intersex individuals’ experiences can help deepen the discussions around current controversies about medical treatment procedures.