Stephanie Saal has spent much of her life questioning surgery performed when she was a baby. Born in 1995 with an intersex variation, she had no ovaries or uterus but did have male gonads, which doctors removed within days of her birth after raising concerns about cancer risk.
Saal told ABC News program 7.30 that the decision had left her wondering whether retaining the gonads, or preserving them for possible future use, might have improved her chances of having children. “I think that has created a big void and a lot of unanswered questions,” she said. She also described imagining another version of herself who had been able to explore parenthood.
Her mother, Linda Brodie, told 7.30 that doctors initially said the baby appeared to be a girl before later expressing uncertainty about her sex characteristics. Brodie said the family was told the gonads would need to be removed quickly because they might be cancerous or become cancerous. The parents decided to raise their child as a girl, she said.
Saal later sought her 1995 medical records to understand what had happened. The first documents released under right-to-information laws did not explain the events, but a second batch was found after 7.30 asked about the case. One report said the removed gonads showed no evidence of malignancy at the time.
Dr Jacky Hewitt, a paediatric endocrinologist and Monash University lecturer who was not involved in Saal’s care, told 7.30 that understanding of intersex healthcare had changed over the past 30 years. She said young people should receive information and be involved in shared decisions wherever possible, while cancer risks can now be assessed more individually; in some cases, gonads may be monitored and removed later.
Hewitt said fertility preservation remains difficult, although future technologies might make use of stored tissue possible. Saal is campaigning for nationwide legal changes to prevent irreversible medical procedures on children with variations in sex characteristics. ABC News reported that Victoria introduced relevant laws in February this year and the ACT did so in 2023, while Queensland has no specific laws.