Psychiatric management of intersexed patients.

The psychiatric management of intersexed patients stems from an awareness that sexual identity is the result of a complex mixture of somatic and psychological components. Decisions in treatment are dependent on the appearance and correctability of the anatomic defects, the age of the patient, and the potential reversibility of the identifications contributing to the manifested sexual identity. In infants and small children, following proper diagnosis of somatic sex and an evaluation of degree of correctability of anatomical defects, decision can be made whether to bring up the child in his genetic sex or not. It is very difficult to change the sexual identity after two and a half years, except possibly in persons who already have considerable question as to their maleness or femaleness. In the psychiatric treatment of children with such disorders, the child and his family should be informed in understandable language what is being done, and the child and usually the parents should be involved in psychotherapy. With the adult, if treatment is necessary, supportive therapy, not psychoanalysis, should be used.