In other words, a person’s body, either internally or externally, can be completely at odds with their chromosomes, with, for example, ovaries within otherwise male bodies, or internal testes in otherwise female bodies. And some intersex people have female chromosomes but with features of male reproductive organs – or vice versa. Some include having sex chromosomes that are not XX (female) or XY (male), but a mixture or neither: XXXY, XXY, XYY, or just one X chromosome. Estimates range from 0.05% to 1.7% of the population, depending on which physical variations (hormonal, chromosomal, anatomical) are included.īut there is agreement that intersex manifestations vary enormously. There is also no agreement or comprehensive data on how many people are intersex. Similarly, some intersex advocates prefer not to use the word “condition” to describe physical differences, because this too suggests pathology rather than variety – and so in a more medical context prefer to use “variations of sex characteristic”. In a medical context doctors use the phrase “disorders of sex development”, which is controversial as it suggests something being wrong when it might merely be different. Until the mid–20th century people used the word “hermaphrodite”, which is now a largely discarded term. Intersex, therefore, is not one state but an umbrella term that covers a range of physical differences from what is generally categorised as typically male or female. When combined with either an undersized penis or undescended testicles it can alert doctors to a range of intersex conditions.
This difference, in which typically the urethra doesn’t extend all the way to the tip of the penis, is called hypospadias and is found in about 1 in 250 boys. Not only was the size of his penis below the standard range, but the opening of the urethra – where urine comes out – was not at the end, but lower down the shaft. It is this that has led him to speak out and explain for the first time who he is.Īnick was born two months premature, in Leicester, on 3 April 1995, the youngest of three in a Hindu British-Indian family. But the consequences of what he has endured reverberate far beyond the marks on his body. He says he is lucky, that it could have been so much worse. Fleeting gestures belie his nerves: fidgeting with his clothes, combing fingers through his hair, smiling often. His delivery is matter-of-fact, almost unemotional, but as layers of experiences unfold –isolation, surgeries, secrecy – it seems this is the only way he can do it.Ī vast scar covers his left forearm. Memories surface in rapid succession, detail after detail, like a flipbook of Polaroids. But before discussing the wider picture for intersex children, he begins to describe what happened to him as he was growing up.
The findings tally with Anick’s experiences. There was, according to the broadcaster, no psychological help for intersex patients, a lack of discussion with the children before life-changing procedures were performed, and a lack of information for parents to be able to give informed consent to operations. In October, the Care Quality Commission – the independent healthcare regulator – demanded answers from Britain’s most celebrated children’s hospital, Great Ormond Street, after a BBC investigation accused the hospital of “not meeting care standards for intersex children”.
Is it really biology that governs whether a baby (or indeed an adult) is deemed male or female, or is it society? Who decides where the line is? And should doctors ever intervene? They begin to unpick long-held assumptions about sex and gender, and raise troubling questions for the medical profession. The ramifications of Anick’s story are wider and more fundamental than first appears. “I don’t want more children growing up the way I did – hiding it,” he says. He hopes that finally people will begin to discuss a basic fact of life: that a lot of people’s bodies are not entirely male or female. Very few others in Britain have ever spoken publicly about it. He is here because he needs people to understand what it is to be intersex. “I never thought that one day I’d be doing something like this,” says Anick, sitting in the BuzzFeed News office, “actually talking about what was originally the biggest secret of my life.” They also could not foresee what shame would do to him, or how much he would have to fight when he couldn't bear the silence any more. They explained what they could to his parents, but they didn’t know what it would mean, or what the future held. His penis was unusual – much smaller than most boys', and with an opening along the side. Doctors knew there was something different about Anick shortly after he was born.