Other things you may find useful

A few websites that might interest you

  • Inter-Act

    From the website: ‘A place for young people with intersex conditions or DSDs to come together, express themselves, and unite their individual stories to develop a voice for a new generation.

    This is a where we say what we think about our lives. We come from every background and we have different perspectives and experiences.

    We don't always agree with each other, and we don't expect you will, either. We write about what makes us angry, grateful, scared, and happy. We write about our relationships with our parents and our doctors – positives and negatives. We write about the realities of our lives - sexuality, friends, dating, faith, feeling different, loving our bodies, struggling with our bodies. What all these stories have in common is that they are true for the person who wrote them. We think it's time they were heard.’

    Do also have a look (and pass it on) at the new brochure by Inter-Act. You find it here

  • The Centrefold Project

    When documentary filmmaker Ellie Land saw reports in the UK national press about an increasing trend in woman undergoing labia surgery to neaten the appearance of their genitals, she set out to make a documentary exploring the subject.

    Funded by the Wellcome Trust, and partnered with leading clinicians Sarah Creighton and Lih-Mei Liao from University College Hospitals London, Centrefold is a moving and thought-provoking film presenting the personal accounts of three women who have had a labiaplasty.

    The ‘Our news’ tab leads to the Centrefold Facebook page (free access) from where you can find other thought-provoking links.

  • Personal website Tiger Devore

    Tiger Devore is an American psychologist who participated in the BBC Documentary ‘Me, My Sex and I’ about which you can read –and view- elsewhere on this site. This is his personal website with many interesting links – for everybody within the DSD(not his favourite word)/intersex community and particularly also for the Hypospadias community. An excellent contribution re: a young man with Hypospadias is ‘Savage Love’, 5/10/2011

  • My Dear Self, and Dear Me, A Letter To My Sixteen-Year-Old Self – A collection of Articles, Books and Facebook Pages

    In 2009, the British intellectual Stephen Fry wrote this heartfelt letter ‘to his dear 16 year-old Self’, to which you find the link here ( the longer original version has been published in the 25th-birthday edition of Gay Times)

    Around that same time, a British journalist came up with the idea of bringing together letters to their dear selves by ‘famous people’. This lead to the collection of books: Dear Me’. The books have their own website which you can find here http://www.dearme.org/ .

    This introduction is from that website by the editor of the book, Joseph Galliano:

    A few years ago I was shown a heartbreaking letter that my partner was given by a troubled classmate when they were both teenagers. It made me want to send a reply back in time to say: "You're just fine." But of course, unless you have that time travel mailbox, that's impossible.

    Instead, the 'Dear Me' letter was born. Initially as a feature in GT magazine in the UK, which I was then editing, and then a UK version of the book in 2009, with a foreword by Elton John.

    Now in 2011, there is an all-new version featuring 75 new letter writers including JK Rowling, Hugh Jackman, James Franco, Kathleen Turner, Graydon Carter, Stephen King, Alice Cooper and Jodi Picoult, who in addressing their younger selves, have intimately opened their hearts to the page – and given us beautiful pictures of their younger selves. JK Rowling has written the foreword.

  • A facebook page followed

    Why include this collection in dsdfamilies.org …because doubts about anything and everything, angst, low self-esteem, poor body-image, questions about sex and sexuality, love, laughter, hope…it’s all there. One may feel alone, but really, you never are.

    An extract from the Foreword by JK Rowling:

    ‘The overwhelming message of this body of letters seems to be: Be yourself. Be easier on yourself. Become yourself, as fully as possible.’

    The letter by Kathleen Turner:

The Centre for Young Women's Health, Children's Hospital Boston, have produced an excellent website 'Health Information for Teen Girl's Around the World.'

A section dedicated to DSD is in process. But in mean time, teen girls might be interested in reading this guide: MRKH: a guide for teens.

Happy to build a link to this blog ‘An AIS woman speaks out – I am a young woman with CAIS’. Please go to http://aiswoman.blogspot.com or find it here