Psychological Adjustment of Parents of Children Born with Atypical Genitalia 1 Year after Genitoplasty

Purpose: We examined the psychological adjustment of parents of children born with moderate to severe genital atypia 12 months after their child underwent genitoplasty.Materials and Methods: Parents were recruited longitudinally from a multicenter collaboration of 10 pediatric hospitals with specialty care for children with disorders/differences of sex development and/or congenital adrenal hyperplasia. Parents completed measures of depressive and anxious symptoms, illness uncertainty, quality of life, posttraumatic stress and decisional regret.Results: Compared to levels of distress at baseline (before genitoplasty) and 6 months after genitoplasty, data from 25 mothers and 20 fathers indicated significant improvements in all psychological distress variables. However, a subset of parents continued endorsing clinically relevant distress. Some level of decisional regret was endorsed by 28% of parents, although the specific decision that caused regret was not specified.Conclusions: Overall the majority of par...