igmsupport

blog for answering asks about IGM

[igmsupport]

a blog intended for responding to questions about intersex genital mutilation (IGM). general CW for descriptions of IGM and surgery.

i will not be answering questions for writers or artists, as that is outside of my comfort zone.

asks may be kept private if information is particularly sensitive. feel free to sign off asks with an emoji, tag, or send me a DM on a throwaway account for anonymous questions!

please only send me questions if you're an adult—i do not feel comfortable answering questions about minors genitalia. it is alright to send me drawn diagrams to better convey a point, none of them will be posted and i will try my best to get back to you.

i am not a doctor and do not intend to complete these surgeries myself, so the information given is from my personal research. feel free to send me resources if you come across any!

nao / she/her / creator of the IGM scarring guide

[igmsupport]

Hiya! So, I know for near certain that I'm intersex, but something is bugging me a bit. Can certain genital variations cause pain/irritation unrelated to IGM? None of my pain spots are similar to the ones on the IGM scarring guide you made (though I figure you haven't magically included every single surgery ever). I thought I might as well ask instead of potentially jumping to a wrong conclusion. I'm okay with sending diagrams or more specific info but I'd prefer to do it privately, because I don't really want that info public, even anonymously hah.

thank you for reading/responding!

yes absolutely! a wide variety of things can cause pain or irritation in the genitals when youre intersex.

current or past UTI or other genital infections can cause generalized genital pain, low estradiol in someone with a vaginal canal can cause cramping or irritation, urethral duplication can cause pain to the urethra/s, endometriosis can cause pain to the genitals all the time or during orgasm, chordee can cause pain from erections, as well as many, many other things.

pain or irritation in the genitalia is certainly not an automatic indicator of IGM, there are so many things that can cause it, especially while intersex.

[igmsupport]

I have been questioning if I am intersex for a while now, made difficult by the fact I have been on Testosterone for gender affirmative care.

I am pretty sure that I had cliteromegaly? But as I've been inspecting that area I have noticed something... odd.

I have a slit/scar on the underside of my clitoris. And there is a very faint reddish line going down from there to the vaginal cannal.

I suspected IGM because I have almost no erogenous sensation in my genitalia (especially the clitoris, I genuinely thought that it being super sensitive was a lie), but I can't dig up my old medical records and the genital scarring guide doesn't seem to ring a bell.

I can draw over some pictures I took for a more clear representation, if need be. I just want a second opinion I suppose.

hello!

if youd like you can draw a picture to give a clearer idea. based on this description alone i wouldnt assume any kind of clitoral reduction. clitorises have a tendency to be "split" at the underside and sometimes the genital raphe is very prominent in some people, leading to a darker more obvious line than typical.

genital sensitivity can be affected by a wide range of things, such as prior mental and physical trauma, anxiety, and gender dysphoria.

this doesnt mean igm isnt possible for you or that a clitoral reduction procedure wasnt done, i encourage you to keep looking for yourself and get to know your body better.

[igmsupport]

I don't know if you're the right person to ask (I've never seen these things being discussed before), but in case you are: do you know if some of the milder(?) forms of igm can be reversed? like, theoretically, if I had an ambiguous genitalia with fused labia minora among other things, and then it was unfused and kind of constructed to look like a part of perisex-esque genitalia while the other things were left pretty much untouched, would it be possible to go to a gender clinic or find a doctor and ask them to fuse it back? has anybody attempted to do that before? cause it gives me dysmorphia, I know I'm not supposed to look like that and given the opportunity I'd reverse it in a heartbeat. do you know if that could be a possibility?

the short answer is yes that is fully possible.

the long answer is it may be a bit complicated getting coverage for that kind of procedure. it might be a good idea to go about it from a gender affirming perspective purely, rather than an intersex/igm related one. when trying to reverse my igm through bottom surgery, i have been trying to use gender affirming purposes for seeking surgery due to there being a larger precedent for having those surgeries covered, and ive heard from other intersex people that they have gone similar routes even if they are not trans.

another thing to mention is labial fusion can occur by itself as an adult due to lack of sufficient estradiol. while i wouldnt recommend during to emulate that yourself, its just something to mention in this case.

[igmsupport]

hello anon! i am still open to drawn diagrams and accept them in both dms and in my submissions!

[igmsupport]

hi again! this is the anon with a mysterious vertical scar (this ask: https://www.tumblr.com/igmsupport/813261082660683776/hi-i-recently-discovered-that-i-have-some?source=share)

first of all, thank you for the advice. I followed it and investigated a little further and I now have more clues, but also more questions. I'm gonna describe things again: first of all, the highest urethra-looking scar is not doing anything, the lower urethras are doing all the work, but the phantom feeling of urinating is up there and it's very present, especially the first couple seconds. second of all, I noticed odd things about all the other urethras. I still think it might have been an attempt at repositioning them, among probably other things, and I think it was mildly botched. I do have a clear urethral mound, half of it is inside the vaginal canal, and it's kinda hard to see where the urethras are and where it's just these random flaps of skin and vague scar tissue-looking spots. I'm also half suspecting some form of clitoral reduction, because 1. it seems too small for its hood 2. it has faded but observable line on it 3. an orgasm is always a gamble, and so is the weird pain spike right after it. it's still confusing to me, because if it was that extensive, why don't touch my septate hymen, for example? or shouldn't my urination-related issues be much worse than they are? but then again, I don't know how doctors make these decisions. all I know is something definitely was done, there's a chance I might have had some form of ambiguous genitalia, and outside of the Clear Vertical Scar it's difficult to tell what's more scars and what's just rough skin and random different coloring. I don't know, if you have any thoughts, I could use a suggestion on what I might want to look up

for the feeling like the highest urethra-like construction has phantom feelings while urinating, that is definitely something that can happen. if there are multiple urethras but one doesnt have an external opening, the urine can spill into that urethra and get stuck inside.

my biggest suggestion would be to broaden your search to things that arent necessarily the first thing youd think of. have you looked into things like epispadias reconstruction or other bladder+urethral reconstructions? i can definitely agree a full vaginoplasty doesnt sound like a likely conclusion if you have a septate hymen, but there is other possibilities centered around the urethra that would affect the clitoris that can be considered.

[igmsupport]

i'm suspecting i have went though igm as an infant or young, not just on the basis that either due to mere switching around from having mychart to not but the fact that i cannot see anything from ages 0-18 in health records and they're now editing existing information like when i started dysmenorrhea.

i have this.. area of above where my clitoris is, like it's connected to my outer labia but also an empty space?. i can't say i see any scarring but it looks vaguely similar to scrotum-like texture? like labia scrotum kinda there? and while i have only a little sensation in my clitoris, this area is very sensitive.

based on a scarring guide i saw, the best ones that fit was either for clitoroplasty or a penectomy, which is the first time i've seen something that showed a similarity to how i look there. i've had a phantom feeling before in that area like soemthing is.. missing or was taken, but no evidence. i'm generally scared to dig into my health records now even though not knowing is also eating me up inside.

am i wrong to think this or worry that this happened? this won't change that im intersex either way even if im wrong as i have other variations, but i have this sinking feeling in my stomach.

sometimes our bodies leave hints to things we're not ready for. i think your concerns about your past are reasonable and that, when you're in a sound place to look into them, you have a good basis behind doing so. what you listed is evidence enough that something happened. even just an inkling of doubt is enough to look into something like this, and get to know yourself better as a human being. whenever you're emotionally ready i think it'd good to investigate this further.

[igmsupport]

thank you so much for your reply! you were correct with your assumption (sorry i should have been clearer). i have wondered if i had something going on with my clitoris, since before going on testosterone i was unable to find it. plus now after being on testosterone for 2 and a half years i feel like the bottom growth i have had is less than others

genuinely thank you so much -🪼

its no issue, im happy to help! i wish you well!

[igmsupport]

so i have an area where i dont have a very strong amount of sensation (a little more than the area around my top surgery scars) and there are some lines/shapes of lighter skin there (almost shaped like a mini vaginal opening, it kinda looks like (:) ) it’s honestly about where a urethra would typically be

but the thing is that i have hypospadias, so any possible igm feels unlikely because wouldn’t they have done surgery to ““fix”” that as well?

-🪼

it depends, often hypospadias that is not full persistent urogenital sinus is not touched by surgeries (i assume you mean that you have vulva-like genitalia, but let me know if thats not the correct assumption). the decisions of surgeons always vary and these surgeries are all fully unique to each person, unfortunately. your description of sensations does sound identical to scars, this could be a situation of possible clitoropexy (reconstruction or repositioning of the clitoris)?

[igmsupport]

IGM//SA topics

Question about what counts as IGM/could something by IGM-adjacent or “accidentally” IGM? Happened when I was an adult.

A couple of years ago I experienced a violent sexual assault in an attempt to do PIV, but that is not really possible with my anatomy, and that that resulting in tearing to my fused labia. I had to receive stitches in the hospital, but when it all healed up, my labia aren’t connected as high up anymore. Is this because the original damage permanently altered the shape of them and nothing would have fixed it fully? Or did the hospital not know how to repair ambiguous genitals to how they originally looked and instead just did what they do for perisex females (and is that IGM?) if not IGM, is there different terminology that exists to describe this kind of situation?

first off i am incredibly sorry you had this experience. 🫂 no one should have to go through that and my answer should not affect your trauma or experience.

i would assume the damage to the labia would not be able to be restored through typical means in this scenario unless specifically requested and prepared for. i do not believe there is a name for this specific experience—i coined "coercive intersex medical interventions" for experiences in which medical providers made forceful or coercive decisions for a person to cover up or change their intersex traits. if that feels it's close to your experience you would be welcome to use it.

i'm sorry i can't give you a more clear answer. 🫂 i wish you well in your healing.

[igmsupport]

hi! I recently discovered that I have some scarring that looks like I might have gone through igm as a child, but I'm not sure if it's logic makes sense (I know for a fact that I am intersex, there's more going on than scarring, but this one is very confusing). warning, I'm gonna describe things: I For Sure have a clear vertical scar on my closer-to-vulva-construction, I've looked at the diagrams I found, and that clearly looks like some kind of urethral repositioning situation. it's confusing to me, because 1. I have two more urethras really close to the vaginal canal, almost inside of it, and 2. the scar looks like a line, but there's like a little circle on it, also a scar, right where the urethra always is on all the perisex diagrams. so, I don't really understand the logic. is it possible that I had the third urethra in the "wrong" place, and they moved it upwards and then it just closed and nobody noticed any problems because I have more to do the job? but then why don't touch the rest of them, were they so far down that you wouldn't notice them on a little baby? or, is it possible that they did notice the deep urethras and just closed the most visible one? but then why the scar line all the way down? or, is it possible to just have a random line on you that looks like a scar and is not a scar, and I'm just overthinking things? but then why does it always feel like the scarring-ghost-urethra is the one doing all the work in the bathroom when it's not, and it's just an intense phantom feeling? or am I missing something? honestly I'm just really confused, do you have any thoughts?

hello!

i think it would help to determine which urethra/s is/are doing the actual urinating for you, and if these urethras are deeper than surface-level dimples. if you havent already, i've heard it's easiest to do this by urinating in the bath tub while using a camera, mirror, or your hand to be able to tell where the urine is coming from.

if the highest urethra is the only thats urinating and the others are dormant, i assume these may be remnants from a urethral repositioning surgery. if the other urethra/s are doing all of the work, this may be something different and the scar you described may not have been intended to reposition the urethra at all, or it could've been a failed urethral repositioning which allowed for the urine to exit closer to the vaginal canal. the urethra is very delicate and hard to work with for these kinds of surgeries, especially in an infant or small child, so that is always a possibility.

a lot of these surgeries mimic each other as well. urethral repositioning can look a lot like vaginoplasty and lead to differing results, regardless of if they even moved the urethra at all.

i think it's good to look into and continue exploring. you know your body best!

[igmsupport]

i'm so confused. i honestly wanna cry.

my body is different, i can tell. no diagrams looks like my body , and none of the words in anything mean anything to me , because i either don't know what they mean ( i lack sex proper ed ) or if i do , i can't figure out where any of it is or if i even have them. i'm scared i may be a victim of igm based on how my mom has spoken about genital surgeries on infants , and i don't know what to do.

do you have any sort of guides to stuff ( like igm or any variants affecting genitals ) with photos ?? i'm sorry if it's a weird ask , i'm just so fucking tired of being confused and having such bad identity issues because of it. i just wanna know what's wrong with me.

im so sorry youre going through this.

my IGM guide wirh drawn photos is the only resource im comfortable linking to. if you require real photos, there are no resources which do not include the recently-mutilated bodies of minors, often infants.

gaining proper sex ed is probably the best route to start for you. i recommend scarleteen, and if you have a vulva, there are many different resources for looking at vulva diversity, like labialibrary. if you have a penis, theres solicited dick pics which is a similar (but smaller) resource.

i wish you the best!

[igmsupport]

Sorry for another “is this theoretically possible or am i overthinking things” ask but im struggling to find solid research. I know for a fact im intersex (hyperandrogenism, vulvar hypospadias, and suspected ovotestes/some sort of gonadal variation), but im trying to determine the odds are i had a clitoridectomy as a child. There is no visible scarring, and when i started T it did grow somewhat, but as a child/adult before T it was noticeably “small” with ongoing issues with pain associated with arousal, intermittent periods of numbness, etc. i still can have clitoral orgasms but it seems mine is a lot more unpredictable with its sensitivity and what not. Could this just be clitoral hypoplasia that reacts to hormones weird or am i possibly onto something? If i did have this surgery, would there be ant possibility for growth on T or does that fact disprove it? Idk. In my gut i have this feeling, and ive had some recurring medical nightmares since i was a kid, but i feel like i shouldnt just assume its for sure IGM. yet no matter how hard i rationalize things, the thought keeps coming back to me. Im just worried its intersex imposter syndrome making me latch onto it.

there are a lot of things this could possibly be.

first off, it is absolutely possible for someone to have bottom growth even if they have went through IGM. it may not be as pronounced as someone without, and it is often very painful, but bottom growth is still quite common in someone who has went through a clitoral reduction.

things like atrophy can cause some pain on arousal and pain with motion around the clitoris. so can scarring from things like physical abuse, UTI, other infections, etc. some conditions like endometriosis can cause similar issues.

the numbness being unpredictable would point more towards dysphoria or anxiety causing issues with maintaining sensation, which is a huge issue for a lot of people! numbness from surgery is often very consistent and is isolated to specific areas. that may be part of what's going on for you, along with clitoral hypoplasia, if no other signs of IGM are present.

this isn't to say that you absolutely couldn't have gone through IGM, but I wanted to state that someone who went through IGM is not more intersex than someone who hasn't gone through IGM. they simply have different experiences. someone who didn't go through IGM can still have went through medical trauma and gaslighting, forced interventions from family and doctors, etc. what you went through, whether IGM or not, does not define your intersexuality.

[igmsupport]

I read through the scarring guide and I'm still having trouble discerning what scars might actually look like. Do you potentially have any images of actual scars on vulvar tissue? Not necessarily igm specific ones. Seeing actual images rather than diagrams helps me a lot and I'm not sure how to find them myself. Sorry if this is out of your comfort zone.

it is, admittedly, very hard to find images of scarring on vulvar tissue that is not specifically in reference to gynecological ailments like stenosis and infections. i was not able to find almost any documentation photos that aren't mid-procedure, directly post-op, or from active disease. i was also able to find almost none on darker skin tones. i hope this can be of help to you. oral scarring also tends to appear a little similarly due to similar base tissue, if that's something you can look into.

[igmsupport]

how could a botched / not well done vaginoplasty (i think???) look? i was born with ambiguous genetalia outside of a hospital due to ramcoa situations, at age 6 my cult decided they wanted to "fix" me after suddenly deciding i was meant to be a girl after raising me male the entire time beforehand (its very confusing, im sorry). they did a surgery on me at the church i was staying at, not a hospital, and i don't know if the "doctors" they had doing it had any actual medical training. whatever they did ended up very messed up. i still have clitoromegaly, and while i have one hole that is both my vagina and urinary opening, inside of it there seems to be two seperate cavities (??) when i've tried feeling around myself. one of them really hurts for me to stick my fingers in and the other doesn't as much. i have no clue what they are or what's going on down there, sorry if this doesn't make much sense. i also have scarring all over down there, random flaps of skin that just kinda stick out or hang out, and what feels like testes inside my labia. i experience UTIs almost constantly and have issues with incontitence and painful sexual stimulation (even if nothing goes inside my vagina). i was medically neglected severely my entire life so i've never gotten care for these things or gotten anything checked out. i guess my question for you is if you know what they were trying to do, or how they messed up, and why it's like that now?? thank you in advance. i'm sorry if this ask doesnt make sense, anyone else i tell about it would call me insane or tell me i'm making things up.

hello!

starting off, you're not insane, and I do believe you. unfortunately for a situation like this I cannot be of much help, due to the seeming non-medical nature of the procedure you were put through.

i would encourage you whole heartedly to seek a gynecologist so they can help you with any distressing physical symptoms and discuss treatment. you don't have to be direct with your doctor about what happened, and could possibly just say that you went through severe CSA and have a lot of current pain. while I can vaguely theorize about what they may have attempted (hypospadias reconstruction for the vulva, possibly? that surgery is very very complicated and delicate, so that might explain the frequent UTI's and separate cavity), I cannot tell you for sure, as I assume these procedures were not up to medical standards.

i wish you a huge amount of luck, I'm sorry I can't be of much help, and I'm so sorry about what you went through.

[dhddmods]

if you have a vaginoplasty [as in igm], is it possible to not have a g spot?

Yes, very possible. G spots are natally developed, they cannot be crafted.

Some people with IGM vaginoplasties will already have a G spot (especially if the vagina was present already, just shallow/narrow), but it's very common for one not to be present.

The closest to a G spot someone who didn't already have one could get is prostate stimulation through the vagina (if they have a prostate) and/or phallic* stimulation through the vagina (if they have a phallus that has nerves under the skin, such as the internal body of the clitoris.)

(*Phallus in this context refers to penises, clitorises, and clitorophalluses.)

[igmsupport]

hello! first of all, thank you for what you do, and I'm sorry that I have to ask heavy questions about heavy things, but well, here we are. I have two questions: one, I suspect I might have been a victim of igm, but I can't know for sure, because nothing looks like obvious scarring and some of my variations are still present. granted, the suspicious sensations/pains/a couple of psychological issues that suggest something like that could've happened at a very early age are there too. but if igm did happen, wouldn't the doctors try and make the entire genitalia look as perisex as possible? I don't know if they'd ignore half of it because it's mild. I also learned that people like me are called intersex fairly recently, so, I don't know a lot. do you know what symptoms I should look for, or how subtle scarring could look like, or anything like this? I could really use some advice or, I don't know, a direction for thinking. second question, and it deserves a genuine trigger warning, I'm so sorry: how do you call an experience where you were mutilated, but not by any doctor but by rape? it was motivated by me being queer and intersex, and the goal seemed to be doing as much damage as possible, and damage it did, but that wouldn't be igm exactly, right? I don't know how to name it, and I thought somebody else could, so. thoughts? (whatever the thoughts are, thank you in advance, and I hope you have a nice day)

hello!

for your first question, there is some variations which are more likely to be "corrected" than others. for example, vaginal variations (lack of a vagina on someone with a vulva, presence of a vagina on someone with a penis) seem very common to "correct", as well as penile hypospadias. doctors may choose to go about only modifying these traits while leaving other intersex traits untouched.

it depends on what exactly you're looking for as far as signs go. shooting nerve pain and complete numbness are very common, as you said. someone with a penis may have erectile dysfunction, pain with erections, lack of skin elasticity, urinary incontinence, etc. someone with a vulva may have lack of elasticity and ability to lubricate in the vaginal canal, a curved vaginal canal, pain with orgasm, lack of labia minora, etc. but all of these can also exist without IGM, so a lot has to be taken into account when considering it.

for your final question, I believe the term you're looking for is corrective rape. this can affect people of any minority as far as I know. if you would like, I think it would be alright to call the experience of going through corrective rape due to being intersex as corrective intersex rape (CIR). its not considered IGM, but is still a terrible experience and a horrifyingly common one in the intersex community.