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The reliability of the Internet is a great reason for pregnant women to believe in drastic treatments that would “cure” disorders of any kind. With the sexual development kind, it is up to the doctor with said expertise to provide the most accurate information possible so that the patient can then decide on the best route to take. The patient I currently have to help is a pregnant woman who has already had a child with CAH, which stands for congenital adrenal hyperplasia. She has received the idea that through the dosage of steroids, she can prevent the possibility of having a second child with ambiguous genitalia. As the doctor, I would allow the mother to go through with the steroid treatment, not only to please her, but also because it has a high chance of success. However, this decision would not go without its own controversy, as a sociologist would potentially find my decision to fall under the trend of unethical medicalization. Whatever the case, congenital adrenal hyperplasia is truly a serious issue, and not only because of the ambiguous genitalia. As a doctor in the field of disorders of sexual development, I would sympathize with the pregnant woman who fears having a second child with CAH. It is a terrible thing when a parent cannot connect with her child because of a physical abnormality that is not dangerous except for the symptoms that are in the end, inescapable. However, the steroid treatment would help to assuage her feelings, as the physical abnormality would be nonexistent. From a sociological perspective, however, this is extraneous, as the steroid treatment is not needed at all. In order to appease the values of the parent and society, however, the child is forced to be subjected to steroidal (or in some cases, surgical) “correction” in order to be a “normal” child. Although the doctor and sociologist would make different decisions, it can be agreed upon that an atypical development of a fetus’ sex has become an unnecessarily grand social issue.
