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Agency-based approaches to the health of intersex people and those with DSD focus on bodily autonomy and the cessation of normalising medical interventions until an under-age person can exercise fully informed choice regarding treatment. Discussions regarding intersex agency and health care can be inspired by the social model of health that emerged from disability theory. However, a purely social model is insufficient to address the harms that has been caused by DSD medical interventions, and the healthcare needs that some intersex people have. Drawing on original empirical research conducted in Italy, Switzerland and the UK, this article explores agency-based approaches to intersex and DSD, incorporating the social model's critique of the pathologisation of bodily diversities, whilst supporting the provision of effective healthcare where needed. The article addresses healthcare deficits and their cultural underpinnings. It identifies key impediments to intersex agency, including body normativity and sex and gender binarism. While there has been slight movement towards an agency-based approach to intersex in some national medical settings in the last ten years, there is still a need for change to the conceptualisation of intersex/DSD and subsequent revisions to healthcare provision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The choice of the sex of rearing in patients with ovotesticular differences of sex development (OT-DSD) is difficult. The final decision should be given by the patient himself or herself, but families' opinion is not to neglect especially when the diagnosis is precocious and the patient can't give the consent to medical or surgical procedures. How should we behave if the parents refuse to raise a child with genital ambiguity?, Case Presentation: We describe and comment on our multidisciplinary approach in three patients with neonatal diagnosis of OT-DSD. The families expressed a strong desire for that which concerned the sex of rearing of their babies in contrast to the International trend of "wait and see". A specific counselling and a constant psychological support were given., Conclusions: Recent trends suggest of postponing surgery to involve the patient in the decision. Child's well-being is the goal of therapy. When medical and psychological support is not able to force parents to accept a child suffering from genital ambiguity, we think that it is better to opt for reversible medical/surgical treatments rather than allowing patients to grow up within a family that does not accept them.