Basics of Gender- Notes from a PBS documentary

Intersex births are a fact of life that has been around forever.   There have been no real changes in frequency.

Currently many children with ambiguous parts, both sets of parts, or deformed or problematic costs, receive surgery very shortly after birth.

Gender Identity

Gender Expression

Sex parts.

These three don't always match!

Some of these children assigned to one gender or the other grow up with a brain that feels a gender that doesn't match.  The brain sends a signal that doesn't  correspond with the body's parts.

It is well known that there are crucial periods in neonatal development.  One such is when the fetus is exposed to estrogen or testosterone levels.   When those levels are too high or too low, various biological events happen.

It is currently thought that a gender sense develops in the brain in everyone.  For most, this sense matches our exterior parts.  For many it doesn't and that is proven to be biologically based.

Many other individuals report identical symptoms to the previous cases yet do not easily fit the above explanation  

State laws about when the below are available vary:

Puberty Blockers

Hormones

Surgery- Male to Female most common.