Intersex, Ageing, and Intersectionalities

Intersex, Ageing, and Intersectionalities explores intersex lived experience through a Western intersex lens. Intersex people comprise almost 2 percent of the population and are born with physical variations that defy binary, medical definitions of male or female anatomy. Since at least the 1960s, it has been standard practice in many countries to perform genital surgeries and other irreversible "normalising" procedures on intersex children, purportedly for their benefit, but without consent and without patient follow-up or conducting longitudinal studies. This book centres the voices of those most often excluded from conversations on intersex - that is, intersex people. It contributes to feminist intersectionality studies in novel ways by examining the lived experience of older intersex people - intersectional beings themselves - and how their lives, bodies, and identities converge with structural intersectional oppressions and barriers to wellbeing in areas such as family, medicine, education, employment, and relationships. The book is intended for academic audiences who are interested in intersex and the complexities of sex and gender. It is also intended for students from a wide range of disciplines, as well as for practitioners, professionals, and activists who might encounter or work with intersex people.

Adeline (Addy) Whittney Berry is a senior research fellow at the University of Huddersfield. They are Chair of Intersex Ireland and their art has been included in Mercury Rising - Inter*Hermstory[ies] Now and Then, the Berlin Schwulesmuseum's first ever intersex themed art show, and exhibited for the adoption of a landmark recommendation on equal rights for intersex persons by the Council of Europe in Strasbourg. They conduct art workshops and art-based research with the intersex community around the world, and their art has been exhibited internationally. Their research interests include sex, gender, sexuality, sex work, mental health, healthcare, families, intersectionality, inequality, disability, queer studies, and ageing. They are co-author of Intersex, Variations of Sex Characteristics, DSD, Critical Approaches (with Surya Monro, Morgan Carpenter, Daniella Crocetti, and Sean Saifa Wall 2025).

1. Introduction 2. Researching intersex experience 3. Adulthood and later life 4. Intersex and the medical establishment 5. Early life 6. Conclusions