Decolonising and demedicalising intersex research

Abstract

In this commentary, we examine the role of non-Indigenous psychology researchers in settler states such as Aotearoa / New Zealand. A key focus is on demedicalising and decolonising intersex. We describe approaches to knowledge production that are based on the decolonising thinking of Indigenous and non-Indigenous researchers, and that open up opportunities for resistance and transformation. We then examine how decolonisation can be brought into dialogue with demedicalisation. Finally, we consider opportunities for an Indigenous understanding of health to contribute to the demedicalising aspirations of intersex advocates and researchers.

The psychology of people with variable sex characteristics/intersex

“…In India, parents may strongly prefer boys over girls [31]. In Aoterea/New Zealand, Maori understandings may offer holistic correctives to Western individualized medicine [32]. In Europe medical professionals working in MDTs may vary in their beliefs about the necessity of the interventions that their teams perform [33].…”

Human Rights-Based Intersex Healthcare: Using Hospital Data to Quantify Genital and Reproductive Surgery on Children in Aotearoa New Zealand

“…Given that Māori and Pacifica models of health emphasise a holistic perspective, not a medicalising or compartmentalising approach, it seems likely that intersex advocates' calls for respecting bodily integrity (Black et al 2017) could sit well with Māori models (Durie 1985(Durie , 1999, and Pacifica models (Kapeli 2021) of health. It is time for work to be done on articulating Māori and Pacifica approaches to intersex health and well-being (Roen and Oliver 2022) and for those understandings to contribute to healthcare practices.…”