‘We just want the best for this child’: contestations of intersex/DSD and transgender healthcare interventions

Intersex/DSD and transgender healthcare for children and adolescents has increasingly become a topic for public and academic debate. Key contestations concern early healthcare interventions in intersex/DSD care and ‘cautious gatekeeping’ in transgender care. With this article, which is based on an integrative literature review and expert interviews, we offer more insight into these debates, by mapping and comparing the arguments used by different stakeholders in both fields. Our analytical comparison of the debates reveals that contradictory perceptions of gender, the malleability of bodies and the autonomy of children/adolescents guide the arguments. While medical and psychological research may provide valuable input to further the debates, they remain inherently ethical and interwoven with gendered norms and expectations. This necessitates critical inter- and multidisciplinary conversations both in healthcare and in academic research.