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[–]Lyssa 42 insightful - 2 fun42 insightful - 1 fun43 insightful - 2 fun -  (3 children)

Well, not exactly... In a lot of cases doctors know that their answer is inaccurate/incomplete but are forced to record it anyway because "intersex" or "indetermined" is not an option. Actually, intersex people are the only ones "assigned" anything.

[–]lefterfield 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

Yes, I know they're the only ones assigned anything. But calling it an assignment is still inaccurate in most cases. In some areas of the world it's still true that medical technology is such that doctors have to make an informed guess - but with modern tests, it would be very unusual for an intersex child not to be clearly identified as one sex or the other.

[–]Anna_Nym 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

My understanding is that the "assigned at birth" phrase was used in intersex advocacy to refer to cases where the intersex condition caused development of ambiguous genitalia, and the doctor operated on the baby to normalize the body. It was literal.

[–]DifferentAirGC 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

That's what I believe too.