Suspended Sorrow: The Crisis in Understanding the Diagnosis for the Mothers of Children with A Disorder of Sex Development

Abstract

ABSTRACT.Objectives: We conducted a survey to obtain information concerning how mothers of children with DSD represent the diagnosis. Methods: We examined our findings through IPA methodology. Results: We observed a crisis of meaning, based on the inability to classify their child with a milestone of the social experience: the gender category. That risks of slipping into adempitive adherences to medical knowledge or hasty decisions about the health of the child. Conclusions: It's necessary to structure spaces with medical-psychological teams, for allowing these families to manage the condition in relation to the choices, and the daily context, of their children.

KEYWORDS:

• Disorders of sex development
• doctor-patient relationship
• understanding the diagnosis
• healthcare
• qualitative research