Mom Starts Group For
Parents of Intersexed Kids

By In Your Face News Service


New York, NY

THE MOTHER of an intersexed infant who was a victim of Intersex Genital Mutilation (IGM) at just over 5 months of age has started a support group for parents of intersexed children. Helena Smith of Jacksonville, Florida announced formation of HELP: Hermaphrodite Education & Listening Post to help other parents cope with the enormous pressures of bringing up intersexed children.

Mrs. Smith's own child, Patrick, had been admitted to Baptist Wolfson Hospital in Jacksonville to have a single undescended testicle removed. While the infant was there, the attending pediatric urologist asked to test the remaining gonad for cancer.

But, according to the Ms. Smith, the doctor instead tested the gonad to ascertain if it was an ovo-teste - an organ containing both ovarian and testicular tissue. When he found that it was, he cut it off without her authorization or consent.

When she confronted the doctor, he told her the organ was malignant and had to be removed. However after months of struggling with the hospital and the doctor, Mrs. Smith finally obtained the pathology report on her child which confirmed what she had suspected all along: there was nothing wrong with her healthy child except that it was intersexed.

Said Mrs. Smith in a telephone interview, "This has traumatized and wounded both of us terribly. Patrick is the most wonderful, precious gift I was ever blessed with, from the day he was born. He was perfect the was he was, until a doctor decided to cut him up and try to make him into a girl -- without my consent or his - at just 5 months of age."

She added that Patrick refuses to be categorized as a boy or a girl; when asked which he is, he'll only say, "I'm Pat-Pat," his name for himself. Mrs. Smith has retained counsel and a suit is currently pending against the hospital and surgeon.

H.E.L.P can be reached at their web-site WWW.SouthEast.Com/~HELP; or, by mail at PO 26292, Jacksonville FL 32226, or through GenderPAC.


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