A Urologist at the Eastern Regional Hospital, Koforidua, Dr. Frank Yirenkyi has admonished Ghanaians to be tolerant towards Intersex people.
According to him, there are many cases of disorders of sexual differentiation; a rare congenital condition in which a baby is born with both male and female reproductive organs, that, such people deserve to be loved and respected.
“The society needs to be tolerant towards such people because before people may choose to be part of these groups, people must understand them to find out why they are in this situation because I have seen several peoples in such condition and sometimes they are being stigmatized. It is only a few people who can come out and report to the health care personnel so that their problem can be treated. I think the society needs to help them understand their problems and be tolerant to them and help solve their problem”
Intersex Awareness Day is internationally observed each October 26 to highlight human rights issues faced by intersex people around the world.
Intersex people are born with physical sex characteristics that do not fit medical and social norms for female or male bodies.
Some intersex people have genitals or internal sex organs that fall outside the male/female categories — such as a person with both ovarian and testicular tissues. Other intersex people have combinations of chromosomes that are different than XY (usually associated with male) and XX (usually associated with female), like XXY.
Some people are born with external genitals that fall into the typical male/female categories, but their internal organs or hormones don’t.
According to Intersex Ghana and Key Watch Ghana, groups advancing for the rights of the Intersex community in Ghana, due to lack of knowledge, intersex people in Ghana face stigma, bullying, medical misinformation, and non-consensual surgery.
The group has therefore petitioned Parliament against the anti-LGBTQI bill which they say will strip away the right and dignity of Intersex people.
Globally, the Intersex community is fighting against discrimination, stigmatization, violence, harmful practices in medical settings, and several other human rights violations which continue to occur around the world for people born with diverse sex characteristics.
A few days ago, fifty-two countries signed petitioned the U.N. Human Rights Council to protect the rights of intersex people.
Speaking to Mybrytfmonline.com, Dr. Frank Yirenkyi stated that, said the phenomenon is becoming more common hence ” advised the public especially parents that as soon as they give birth to their children, they should take a critical look about their genitalia so that they can examine it in the hospital so that if there is anything unusual the health care personnel can investigate it so that right at the infant stage it can be corrected to help the parents know the type of name to be given to the child”.
He added “for instance if the person is of mixed genitalia, and you give the person a particular name and later you find out that is the opposite direction then that is when the people in the community stigmatize against them. So it is very important to take note of our children genitalia right after we give birth”.
According to the renowned urologist, pregnant women, in particular, must also be cautious about the type of medicines they take.
“These are hormonal disorders that affect the chromosomes so we need to be careful about the type of medicine or drugs we take in when we are pregnant. All these can affect and their hereditary also so that if we are aware that there is such disorder in a particular family then one has to be careful in choosing a partner for marriage”
Meanwhile, Dr. Frank Yirenkyi is diagnosing two Intersex twins in Yilo Krobo. The twins were born in 1993 and named females but have grown up to be male hence want to change their gender.
Source: Mybrytfmonline.com/Obed Ansah
