Non-Consensual Intersex Surgery: The History, Harm, and Fight for Bodily Autonomy

When a baby is born with anatomy that doesn’t fit typical male or female categories, doctors have often rushed to perform surgery—without the child’s consent, without long-term data, and sometimes without even telling the family the full truth. This is non-consensual intersex surgery, medical procedures performed on intersex infants to make their bodies conform to binary sex norms, often without their knowledge or consent. Also known as intersex normalization surgery, it’s not a rare exception—it’s been standard practice in hospitals across the U.S., Europe, and beyond for decades. These surgeries aren’t lifesaving. They’re cosmetic. And they’re irreversible.

The people who undergo these procedures—intersex individuals, people born with physical sex characteristics that don’t fit typical definitions of male or female—are often left with chronic pain, loss of sensation, infertility, and deep psychological trauma. Many don’t even know what was done to them until they’re teenagers or adults, when they find old medical records or start asking questions. This isn’t medicine. It’s violation. And it’s rooted in the same old belief: that a body that doesn’t fit must be fixed. The bodily autonomy, the fundamental right of a person to make decisions about their own body without coercion of intersex children has been ignored in the name of social comfort. Parents, pressured by doctors and terrified of stigma, have been told, "It’s easier this way." But easier for whom? The child? Or the people around them?

The fight against these surgeries is growing. Activists, medical professionals, and intersex advocates are pushing for laws that ban non-essential surgeries on minors. Countries like Malta and Portugal have already passed protections. In the U.S., California and Oregon have introduced similar bills. Meanwhile, organizations like InterACT and the Intersex Justice Project are collecting testimonies, challenging medical ethics, and demanding that consent be required before any irreversible procedure. This isn’t about politics. It’s about basic human rights: the right to grow up whole, the right to know your own body, and the right to decide what happens to it.

What you’ll find in this collection are articles that trace how medicine turned difference into a problem to be solved, how secrecy became the norm, and how survivors are rewriting the story. You’ll read about the history of medical control over intersex bodies, the psychological toll of hidden surgeries, and the quiet revolution happening in clinics and courtrooms. These aren’t abstract debates—they’re real lives, real bodies, and real choices being taken away.