Uncertain Knowledge: The Medicalisation of Intersex People and the Production of Ignorance

Michal Raz ()
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Michal Raz: Sciences Économiques et Sociales de la Santé & Traitement de l’Information Médicale (SESSTIM), Aix Marseille University, 13005 Marseille, France

Social Sciences, 2024, vol. 13, issue 8, 1-20

Abstract: Ignorance is produced through mechanisms related to power relations and socio-cultural context. This article examines whether the theoretical conceptualisation of agnotology may be useful when exploring intersex and the way it has been erased socially and physically. Specifically, based on the work of a PhD in Sociology and History of Science, it proposes categorising three types of mechanisms of ignorance production—cultural, epistemological and physical—with the aim of providing a greater understanding of how medicine, science and technology participate in a continuous process of erasing intersex bodies and lived experiences. Using medical literature, interviews and observations, the article focuses on a specific area of biomedical knowledge and intervention: the prenatal ‘treatment’ of Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia (CAH) with dexamethasone or ‘prenatal DEX’. It shows how this procedure was pioneered by French doctors and how it continues to be practised in France despite numerous uncertainties and controversies inside and outside of the medical sphere.

Keywords: biomedicine; gender; intersex; prenatal diagnosis; controversy; ignorance; hormones; France; epistemology; body (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A B N P Y80 Z00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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