What It’s Like to Be an Intersex Nudist

[NudieDaniel]

About 1.7 percent of the world’s population is born intersex, according to the U.N., meaning their bodies do not fit binary medical notions of male or female. The word is an umbrella term, referring to a range of congenital variations. For example, females born with Turner syndrome have a partial or missing X chromosome and tend to have a short stature, broad chest, widely spaced nipples, low hairline, and an inability to reproduce. Much rarer is aphallia, which refers to people who are born with a set of male chromosomes but without a penis. Historically, intersex children have been operated on in infancy to “normalize” their bodies — a procedure whose most notable advocate was the renowned mid-20th-century psychologist John Money. But, in a 2006 consensus statement, the American Academy of Pediatrics stopped advocating this practice, though there are no laws restricting such activity in the United States.

Nicky Chaleunphone, a 39-year-old student from Connecticut, spoke with Science of Us about life as an intersex person who also has a rare genetic condition called Kallmann syndrome, which impacts the onset of puberty.

http://nymag.com/scienceofus/2015/09/what-its-like-to-be-an-intersex-nudist.html#