Clinicians and Allied Health Professionals

The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto has prepared a very helpful interactive graphic that can help explain the development of external genitalia and internal reproductive organs before birth, and some of the variations that can occur. The site has also been gradually adding more detailed explanations of several specific conditions. As of April 2008, AIS (androgen insensitivity syndrome), CAH (congenital adrenal hyperplasia), hypospadias, XY mosaiciscm, gonadal dysgenesis, and 5-alpha reductase deficiency were covered.

This important document, the outcome of collaborative work by fifty international experts (including two members of Accord Alliance’s Advisory Committee) represents an important advance in thinking about appropriate care for patients and families affected by disorders of sex development. This is also the document that established “disorders of sex development” as a replacement for archaic nomenclature. (Pediatrics 2006;118;e488-e500. DOI: 10.1542/peds.2006-0738.)