Warning! Long post ahead.

If you know me, you know that I'm intersex. What does that mean? It means that I was born with one of over 30 different variations of sexual development. In my case, it's Persistent Müllerian duct syndrome (PMDS). This is a very rare condition that occurs in men with completely normal phenotypes, and it's characterized by the presence of Müllerian duct structures. In a nutshell, this means that I was born with the internal anatomy of a female complete with a uterus that terminated into a blind sack and ova-testicles (which is a combination of ovaries and testicles). They were located where ovaries would normally be. I had the external anatomy of a male. I was assigned male at birth because my penis met the minimum requirements to be assigned male. I also have sub coronal hypospadias and chordee.

I experienced countless surgeries as a child in an attempt to correct what the medical profession claimed was undescended testicles. This was not the case. But in the 1950s nobody in the medical profession was being taught about the different variations of intersex or what the medical profession likes to call it “disorders of sexual development” (DSD). None of the surgeries in my childhood were successful nor did I consent to any of them. I didn't find out I was intersex until I was 46 years old. In 2014, I had a radical hysterectomy. One of only two performed on a male ever recorded in Clark County history.

Why do I bring this up? Because nearly 2.7% of the global population experiences an intersex condition. This is equivalent to the occurrence of a natural redhead. Why is this important? Because of the anti-transgender agenda currently being pushed by far-right GOP politicians across the country. Their binary view of gender is completely and utterly incorrect and people like me are physical evidence to suggest that gender is not binary and that gender does not belong under the same category as genitals. Gender has been associated with genitals for centuries. That doesn't make it right. So, if you want to play the biology card when you start talking about gender, how would you gender me when I was born? Was I male? Was I female? Or was I somewhere in between? You see, gender isn't that easy, is it?

Why am I writing this? Because all of this anti-transgender legislation affects the intersex community just as much as the transgender community and it needs to stop. If you still hold the viewpoint that there are only two genders, I find it very difficult to be friends with you. If you wish to open your mind and learn more, I would be happy to have a discussion with you. As always, I will answer questions, but I will not entertain anyone who brings disinformation to the table as evidence.

Thanks for reading.

Update

My last post indicated that surgery was scheduled for March 24, 2014. That surgery took place on schedule. During that surgery, I had a uterus, my gall bladder, and my appendix removed. I also had my streaked gonads removed. It took 3 surgeons over 5 hours to complete the needed procedures.

Looking back on that date over 2 years ago, I still get angry with the medical profession. The doctors I've had over 5 decades of my life all decided for one reason or another to keep what turned out to be a life threatening condition from me and my mom, is just beyond comprehension. The uterus I had terminated in a blind sack. Several years prior to its discovery, during a cat scan for an infection back in 2006, I was passing blood from the penis. Subsequent research concluded that the uterus developed a fistula to the bladder. The blood was actually from the uterus menstruating. I was having a period!

Several doctors were consulted, none of which could (or would) explain the blood passage. In fact one doctor concluded that I had bladder cancer and I had a year to live. That turned out to be woefully inaccurate, thankfully! This imbalance of hormones and stress caused a great deal of harm to my health. I gained several hundred pounds of weight. This added to my medical condition due to rampant fat bias practiced by many doctors in the profession today.  At my heaviest weight, I was an astounding 587 lbs. I actually died in an ER in Arizona. They performed a tracheotomy, and restarted my heart. I remained in a medically induced coma for 5 days. During that time in the hospital, I was routinely humiliated by the medical staff. Because of my bleeding issues, they took the liberty of issuing a kotex to me and left me to my own devices.

Not once did any of those charged with my care ask the question...why am I bleeding? Thanks to a wonderful Pulminologist, we got a handle on my respiratory issues and started the healing process. This was back in 2009. Eventually, the bleeding stopped. This was good and bad.

Fast forward to 2013.

I went into my general practitioner to complain of severe abdominal pain. I explained my condition to him. He was very honest and admitted that he knows very little about Disorders of Sex Development "DSD" or Intersex conditions. As researchers, my wife and I took this as a challenge and began an education of my doctors. We provided a medical text, several research papers, and the cat scan that started it all. He then felt the need to consult an Ob-Gyn. This was yet another challenge.

This conversation was interesting. First, I had to convince him that I was the patient, not my wife. Then I had to convince him that I needed a hysterectomy. After presenting my research, and the DSD textbook, I was able to get him to agree on the needed surgery. He disagreed with my assumption that my abdominal pain was caused by the uterus right up until I was in recovery. He conceded that I was indeed right after removing the uterus which was inflamed and filling with blood. Apparently the fistula was damaged and no longer allowed the blood to pass to the bladder. Five hours and three organs later, I'm am once again on the road to recovery.

The DSD text book

Fast forward to 2016 (today)

I'm now on Testosterone therapy. My weight has since stabilized at 180 lbs, a net loss of 407 lbs. My health has never been better.

I am an Intersex person!

 Me in 2009 with my wife Laura

Me in 2016!