According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, around 63,300 Australians aged over 16 – 0.3% of the overall population – know they were born with variations of sex characteristics. This means their bodies don’t fit medical norms about how female or male bodies should look or function.

But the actual number is thought to be much higher, as many people don’t know about their physical difference or medical history, or don’t receive a clinical diagnosis. Some people learn their medical history later in life. Some never do.

People who have a trait but don’t know about it can still experience health and social impacts from having a body that is a bit different.

And while people with intersex variations are included as the “I” in the umbrella term LGBTQI , they are often overlooked or misunderstood. Having innate variations of sex characteristics is not a sexuality and is not about gender or identity.

What does ‘intersex’ mean?

Around 100 genes can influence sex development. Any one or more of these can vary from what is expected when an embryo is developing.

Some traits don’t have a genetic origin.

So the terms intersex, “differences of sex development” and “innate variations of sex characteristics” describe a diverse range of traits.

These variations can impact the number of chromosomes someone has, how their reproductive organs develop, or the way their body produces or responds to sex hormones.

Some variations – especially chromosomal variations – are diagnosed before birth. Many variations, especially those involving genital difference, are first noticed at........

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