Intersex or hermaphroditism still undergoes the same procedure when it comes to its treatment. A child born with a sexual condition that is neither classified as male nor female is set to go under a corrective surgery. In this corrective surgery, an intersex infant would be either is turned into a male or a female. Assigning the sex of an intersex infant will be based on which the ambiguous genitalia will have the higher potential to be corrected (Fallon Jr. 1).
Medical experts recommends that this procedures during the first 6 months from birth due to the fact that the tissues of the sexual organs of the infants are likely to be plastic and influenced by the estrogens from the mother making the healing process faster and that there only few surgical procedures that are needed (Zaparackaite & Barauskas 110). So if the doctors find the penis is too small for sexual penetration, then, they will remove it to create an “artificial vagina”, same goes if they find an enlarged clitoris (Rotten par. 19).
Furthermore, sex assignments do not only occur once, there are instances where and reassignment is needed. Sex reassignments are done when there are new hormonal changes that occur sexually. When assigning a sex to intersex infant, experts would consider the results of the examinations that they conducted like the pelvic ultrasound and chromosomal analysis, and other possibilities like fertility potential for female pseudohermaphroditism, penis growth potential for male pseudohermaphroditism, sex hormones secretion of reproductive organs, health risk conditions, and parents’ opinions and their preference (Richards sec.
4 par. 2). The group of medical doctors that will perform this assignments and reassignments consists of neonatologists, pediatricians, endocrinologists, radiologists, urologists, psychologists, geneticists (Health Scout). Their aim is to be able to make a normal-looking genitalia and normal sexual functions, and since making a female external genitalia is much easier, majority of true hermaphrodites are assigned to be a female instead of a male.