Clinical Management of Gender in Egypt: Intersexuality and Transsexualism

This article reviews the literature on intersexuality (disorders of sex development [DSD]) and transsexuality in Egypt. Egypt's resources for the diagnosis and treatment of rare conditions, such as DSD and transsexualism, are quite limited. The birth of a child with a DSD is likely to be stressful, especially in regard to decisions on gender assignment, and genital abnormalities are associated with stigma and shame. Gender assignment may be biased toward the male gender, because female infertility precludes marriage and female gender adversely affects employment prospects and inheritance. Later gender change in either direction may also carry stigma. Gender reassignment surgery for transsexuals without somatic intersexuality was legalized in Egypt in 2005, but requires permission by a national Sex Identification and Determination Committee.