Stakeholders Seek Recognition, Inclusion Of Intersex Group In Healthcare

Stakeholders at a two-day sensitization workshop focused on enhancing understanding of intersex realities and intersex-inclusive healthcare among Nigerians and the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare have called for the recognition and inclusivity of the group in the health sector.

Intersex individuals born with sex characteristics (chromosomes, genitalia, reproductive organs, hormones) that don’t fit typical definitions of male or female and an umbrella term for a variety of natural variations in sexual development that don’t fit into the binary male/female classification.

Addressing the gathering in Abuja, the Director, ,Gender, Adolescent, School Health and Elderly Care (GASHE) Division, Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Dr John Ovuraye said the Ministry was expanding its inclusivity agenda to ensure vulnerable populations, including adolescents, the elderly, persons with disabilities, and now intersex persons, are not overlooked.

”We are all working in line with the directive of the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Muhammad Ali Pate, as it relates to inclusivity for all.”

” And this inclusivity, we are expanding it to measure all Nigerians, especially the ones that have been forgotten or the ones that have not come online, At least, their health needs are important to the health needs of the rest of them that we are attending to.”

Speaking further, he said, ”Now, this category of Nigerians, such as the elderly, the adolescents, the persons with disability, they are all super important and we want everyone to come on board.”

”Now, this community of intersex persons that are born with one form of abnormality or the other, as it relates to the sex organs, they are also a key population. Because at that very tender age, they don’t know whether they are male or they are female.”

On her part, the Executive Director of Intersex Nigeria, Obioma Chukwuike, who identified data gap highlighted the urgent need for broader recognition and integration of intersex issues into national health policies.

”So the gathering today, which is in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, is to train the departments in the Federal Ministry of Health and also have a dialogue with the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare on inclusive intersex healthcare in Nigeria.”

”For a very long time, over a long decade, I can’t even remember, as an intersex person, intersex has not been an inclusive conversation in the healthcare sector.”

According to her,”So Intersex Nigeria, looking at the gap, has worked in collaborative efforts with the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, with the collaboration with the Department of Gashi Department, Gender, Adolescent and School of Health Department, to find a way to bridge that gap of knowledge.”

Obioma Chukwuike noted that intersex are classified as neither male or female whose genitals are so ambiguous and cannot be classified as either a male or a female.

”Or maybe their chromosomes, for male, we know that the chromosomes for male is XY. But you can find out that a female body might have a chromosome that is XY, but looking at them physically, you might assume that they are female. But their chromosomes, when it’s dictated, is XY.

The Executive Director added that Intersex individuals, born with congenital variations in sex characteristics, often face stigma, discrimination, and limited access to appropriate healthcare services.