You're Enough

(source)

Myth 1: “Intersex people are super rare.”

They’re not. Even the often-cited 1.7% estimate is outdated, it came from limited data in the 90s. Historically, before intersex genital mutilation (IGM) became common, the number of intersex people was closer to 6%.

So why the drop? Because intersex people have been erased, literally and systemically.

• Many of us are sterilized as children without consent.

• Parents are pressured to agree to “normalizing” surgeries on infants, and can even face CPS reports if they don’t.

• Intersex fetuses are often aborted, and infanticide of intersex babies still happens.

That’s not nature making us rare, that’s eugenics.

Myth 2: “There are only a handful of people with each intersex variation.”

Take mine, for example: CAH due to 3β-HSD deficiency. Online sources say it’s so rare only ~60 people have it. That’s not true. I see people diagnosed with this every week in intersex and CAH support groups. The data just hasn’t been updated in decades.

Myth 3: “Everyone is biologically male or female.”

I don’t buy that. The idea of “biological sex” as two neat categories is a social construct, and honestly, it functions like an insurance scam.

My assigned sex at birth wasn’t male or female, it was indeterminate. But insurance and medicine demand boxes, so they make one up.

Doctors don’t even treat “sex” as meaningful when it matters, I’m constantly forced to take pregnancy tests even though it’s biologically impossible for me to get pregnant, all because my legal sex is female. Also, assigned sex at birth, legal sex, and gender identity are three separate things and not everyone has them line up.

What does “biological sex” even mean when:

• Some people have both XX and XY chromosomes,

• Some have ovotestes and produce both sperm and eggs,

• Some women with XY chromosomes can carry pregnancies,

• And some people are born with both a penis and vagina?

Nature is messy, and that’s normal. Being intersex isn’t tragic or broken. I’m proud to be intersex. I’m glad I’m intersex. I’m glad I’m alive.

And I clutch the little warm tubes of blood and feel this sick person warming my hands and I think about how kind you might be and how I wish I could hold your hand and how badly, how really really badly, I want you to get better and stay warm and hold someone’s hand again.

And anyway sometimes it’s better to not think so vividly about the people I’m doing tests for. I’m a good little cog in a vast machine of people all trying to heal and cure, and my cog feels so fucking small sometimes. But I hope the blood I prepare for you helps you breathe better and laugh and wake up feeling well rested.

🏳️‍⚧️ TRANS RIGHTS 🏳️‍⚧️

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and

The way I explain it to my patients is that our neurons don’t regenerate. They make connections with each other and that’s it. If you don’t use your brain, they make fewer connections and, if one of them dies, you’re gonna miss it, because that was the only one that knew how to do X. Now, if each one of them has many, many connections, you won’t notice the difference when one of them dies. The others pick up the slack.

As of 2024, 45% of dementia risk factors are modifiable. Relevant to this conversation, 5% for less education and 5% for social isolation.

We absolutely are going to see the reflection of this, but it’s gonna take decades and it’ll be too late. So, for the love of your brain, pretend that it’s a muscle and make it work. People complain about “when am I ever gonna use this maths formula in my life?” You’re not. You’re teaching your brain to think logically. Those sinapses will be there for when you need to figure out your week’s schedule. English classes taught me how to interpret data and how to convey it in this text so it’s clear and you understand what I’m saying, not because I needed to justify why the curtain is blue.

Make your brain know how to do different things. Logic games, puzzles, taking care of a garden even if small, planning a church’s event or birthday, learn a new instrument, learn a few words in another language, look at a calendar every day, do some manual labor if possible. Do not, I repeat, do not let your brain get rid of sinapses by letting AI do everything. Your brain uses 20% of your body’s energy — do you really think it’s going to maintain connexions that aren’t in use?

Most cases of Alzheimer’s are sporadic, meaning no family history. Family history of a first-degree relative with Alzheimer’s starting before they were 80yo increases your risk in 2-3x on average.