Klinefelter's?  Are you or did he assess us right?  What about the symptoms?
 

In the end, those of us who have the XXY are up against the tired old definitions that pertained to a very small group of similarly affected males. KS - Klinefelter's Syndrome.  As a result we are lumped with them or if we don't quite fit than we have a lot of trouble ahead since Doctors tend to look for congruence rather than a range of possibilities.
   
For most of my life, KS was never broached by my doctors because I was obviously bright, fairly strong, and quite unwilling to discuss my psychological state with them out of fear of where they'd go with it.

Today, I/we still find it difficult to get Doctors to pay attention to the possible effects of our XXY condition.  It's often
hard to get them to look at our genitals let alone order tests for hormone levels or other endocrine functions because "you don't fit the profile".
    
The real problem with intersex in general and XXY in particular is that none of these conditions are symptomatically straightforward. Each has condition has a broad range of possible symptoms that may or may not affect a given individual at a given time. While we probably would have benefited from Testosterone Therapy in our early years -
the state of that therapy in the 40's and 50's might have been worse than the soft teeth and immune deficiencies we experienced.
     
Another aspect that tends to be overemphasized is the rabid binarism of parents of KS children. It would seem that the latest studies connecting a greater "femininity" in XXY persons with an X from the mother's side might provide a softening stance toward KS and XXY children who act more feminine.  But what we find on many KS sites is an almost feverish denial of female tainted behavior. We've got to get away from this idea that "feminine" behavior in men necessarily means a homosexual outcome.  Orientation is not necessarily tied to behavior.
     
So let's encourage parents, and doctors toward a wait and see attitude while maintaining a close watch on the various shortcomings that may develop concerning hormones, and the general physical well being of our young friends with XXY.
 
Tom/Ms.G
Member of GendersInX.org

My Bichon Frisé has a DSD (Disorder of Sex Development)
by Curtis E. Hinkle

I am the proud adult companion of a cute little Bichon Frisé named Sensen. When Sensen was just a few weeks old, I was told that s/he was a boy. To my astonishment no one could tell Sensen from a girl. He was a big white puff ball with coal black eyes and a very feisty, endearing temperament. I began wondering if perhaps there were some sex development issues that needed to be dealt with and took him to the veterinarian. To my dismay, he was diagnosed as being afflicted with a DSD and more specifically cryptochordism. He had no balls. He was defective, not worth much really. Should have been eliminated from the gene pool before birth. But to me he was very special.

Well, I was confused. Was s/he really a boy? Or a girl? Or what? What sex should I raise Sensen as. What was the most likely gender identity that s/he would grow up to be or would s/he be a boy if I simply treated him like a boy? These questions haunted me for weeks. I did not want to have a little companion with gender issues and this disorder needed to be fixed so that I was sure what color leash to get and whether to put bows in his/her hair.

The veterinarian informed me that depending on the underlying cause of the cryptochordism, the gender could vary. It could be that s/he was afflicted with the disorder of sex development known as androgen insensitivity syndrome and have a female identity. However, it could be that what we were dealing with was another disorder that would actually make Sensen act like a boy even though s/he really wasn't.

Now this confused the hell out of me. How could my little companion act like something s/he wasn't? Should I make him/her act like what s/he really is? The vet informed me that in such cases s/he could mount other females but for me not to worry about it because s/he would not be able to reproduce and the other females probably would not care. But that did not answer my question. If s/he is acting like a male but is really a female, how do I know which is the real Sensen?

The veterinarian realized that such questions were of great concern to me as the adult companion of Sensen and decided to run a battery of tests to determine the true sex. It never dawned on us to deal with the possibility that maybe Sensen was intersex and might not really agree with any male or female category. We just assumed that all animals are male or female and by running tests we will know which one they really are and therefore ease any discomfort that might be associated with uncertainty or ambiguity.

Well, to my amazement before I got the tests back Sensen was mounting Chocolat my beautiful little Chocolate Persian companion and I was totally stunned. I thought that it was just his sex that had not developed. Now I was faced with a real deviant who was attracted to cats. I quickly called the vet and told him to stop all tests. I did not want any more information. Sensen had answered all my questions. He was just a deviant, pure and simple. But he is adorable and I love him rotten.

--
Curtis E. Hinkle
Fondateur, Organisation Internationale des Intersexes
Founder, Organisation Intersex International
http://www.intersexualite.org/

Sense of Community  

Can anyone say what a community is ?

In the thesaurus, a community is described as a society, a cooperative spirit and as a group of people. It’s historical roots come from communes, such as the ones that were popular in the 1960’s. It was described as a place where people gathered in a sense of co-operation and a willingness to do well by another either through physical or moral means.

 

Don’t you find it hard to come across a community and actually feel like you belong there ?

I do and I will bet that many others will agree with me. It’s hard to find a place where there is no judgements placed on you whether it’s something that you believe, have done or simply the way you are. Too many times have we seen a controversy over who you are never mind what you believe in. Convincing people in an argument is just about impossible and yet you and I both know that there is a possibility that an equilibrium can be achieved if only people would listen and honestly think about it.

 

As members in GendersInX, each of us strive to achieve a sense of belonging where judgements of a person or character is left to the outside. This is a place of refuge for most, myself included. Here we can talk about our inner most feelings and still not be embarrassed or paranoid of what others think of us. We are who we are and no amount of arguments can change that. Here, we see an unique sense of community.

 

How we achieve this is quite simple actually : we are a positive people who want nothing but to bring out the best in another by giving a bit of ourselves. 

 

Okay, I’ll admit that not everyone coming in has a positive attitude. This is something that has to be learned and we, as members in GIX (as we affectionately call it) strive to overcome certain prejudices that invoke negativity. We do this by helping each other out to see the flip side of things, we work it out by talking. In as many of us who have a sexual condition or syndrome, we can easily put blame on things that we have no control of. What if we took responsibility of ourselves and start to see the good things about our conditions/syndromes or even how to better handle situations that previously have gotten the worst of us.

 

This is the foundation of GendersInX, a community of positive thinking people that look out for one another. One thing GIX is not, we are not a click. We do welcome everyone that wants to learn about other people different from them and in turn learn about ourselves a bit more. If you have/are a condition not mentioned in GendersInX.org , please do not hesitate to come in as we would like to learn about your challenges and your experience(s). We have forums dedicated to certain conditions/syndromes and more will be opened up as we grow as a community.

 

In GendersInX, you can help by growing with us.

 

Andre@GendersInX.org