Kit Roberts
Warning: This article contains discussion of surgery on intersex infants which some readers may find distressing.
A man who was born intersex has revealed how he was raised as a girl after doctors performed surgery on him after his birth.
Jim Ambrose features in a new documentary from Channel 4 called The Secret of Me, which reveals the prevalence of surgical intervention in infants who are born intersex.
This still happens in many countries around the globe, and effectively means that doctors carry out 'corrective' surgery on an infant to make their genitalia align with what is considered either male or female.
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Jim, now in his late 40s, shared that he was raised as a girl, but a class at college led to him realizing what had happened to him not long after he was born.
"I was taking this feminist studies course," he said, "I had no idea when I walked into this class that my whole f***ing world was gonna turn upside down."
Jim recalled flicking through a text that was assigned for the class, and reading about babies who are 'born with bodies with genitals that fall outside an arbitrary acceptable norm'.
Explaining what can happen in this scenario, he said: "The length is measured. This long you get to be a boy, if it's less than that then you lose your phallus and you're raised as a girl.
"The choice is made by the parents and the doctors. The child is having their gender designated, imprinted, selected for them."
He added: "And it just hit me - I think this is about me."
When Jim looked at his medical records, he found that his chromosomes were XY, which is a male chromosome.
In a horrifying moment, he found that doctors had performed surgery on him as an infant to arbitrarily decide his gender for him.
"I was a healthy baby but then there's all this other documentation about my genital presentation needed to be altered and so many things needed to be removed," he said.
"Those things were taken out and my genitals were crafted to have a very satisfying, pleasing vulva presentation so I could be safely taken home by my parents."
Ambrose, originally from Louisiana, spent years as an activist for intersex people, but had to stop as it took a toll on him.
He told The Big Issue: "Depression compounded on depression. I chose self-medicate in a lot of different ways, and that just makes everything worse. I told young activists that if you decide to speak out publicly, specifically about the abuse that you endured and your family endured, it costs you something. Never forget that it costs you something."
Being born intersex is more common than people may at first think.
Cleveland Clinic states that around 2 percent of people worldwide have 'intersex traits', which might be manifested through their external sex characteristics such as genitalia, or in factors such as chromosomes.
This figure means having intersex characteristics has a similar prevalence globally as being born a twin or with red hair, and many intersex children are at risk of surgical intervention.
Advocates for intersex people say that carrying out these surgeries is a form of abuse, and takes away someone's choice for how they would want to live.
If you’ve been affected by any of these issues and want to speak to someone in confidence, contact the LGBT national hotline at 888-843-4564, available Monday to Friday 4pm-12am ET and 12pm-5pm ET on Saturdays.
The Secrets of Me is available to watch on Channel 4 on demand.