Comparing contemporary medical treatment practices aimed at intersex/DSD bodies in Israel and Germany Limor Meoded Danon Martin Buber Society of Fellows, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel Abstract Recently, new laws and medical guidelines in many countries have prohibited early genital surgeries and irreversible medical treatment for intersexed babies. Following the passing of the German law that allows parents to register intersexed babies with no sex/gender, and after the establishment of new medical guidelines for intersexed patients in Israel, this study aims to examine the current medical policies regarding intersexed bodies at DSD centres and hospitals in Israel and Germany. How, if at all, have they changed the previous medical guidelines? This is a narrative study that includes 62 in-depth interviews with medical professionals, parents and intersexed people from Germany and Israel. Three main controversial themes are examined, including the situated diagnostic medical gaze, the surgical practices for normalising intersexed bodies and the concealment of intersexed bodies. I find that in Israeli hospitals, early irreversible surgeries for ‘ambiguous genitals’ and the removal of internal sex organs are taking place frequently, whereas in Germany, the three DSD centres examined offer psychological counselling for parents instead of early surgeries for their babies. While in Israel concealment practices are embodied in the medical policy, the DSD centres in Germany encourage openness and peer group support. Keywords: biopolitics, body, cosmetic surgery, genetic testing, Israel, narrative method Introduction A number of significant changes regarding the medical treatment of intersex 1 babies have recently been implemented in various countries around the world. In Malta, new legislation (the Gender Identity, Gender Expression, and Sex Characteristics Act). prohibits genital surg- eries on intersex children until they are old enough to consent to it. 2 In Germany, new guidelines for medical professionals prohibit irreversible surgeries performed for socially con- structed reasons, for instance genital cosmetic surgeries, removal of healthy sex organs and hormonal replacement therapy used to create a physical appearance in line with dimorphic body/gender norms. These new guidelines permit irreversible surgeries only for health rea- sons, when babies’ lives are at risk, for example in the case of cancerous tumours of the gonads, bladder infections, urethral obstruction and so on. The new guidelines highlight the critical importance of open communication with parents and children and the provision of emotional support. 3 These new laws and guidelines represent, at least theoretically, important steps toward social and medical changes that put a stop to irreversible surgeries on intersex babies and provide them with bodily autonomy, controversial issues that intersex activists © 2018 Foundation for the Sociology of Health & Illness. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd., 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA Sociology of Health & Illness Vol. xx No. xx 2018 ISSN 0141-9889, pp. 1–22 doi: 10.1111/1467-9566.12812