Does anybody know why vas deferens aplasia (or CAVD) is listed as a DSD but not an intersex variation?
Per the title. Anybody in the intersex community here have any insight? 😵💫
I've recently been putting together a resource on intersex variations. Which led me to learning that vas deferens aplasia, also known as congenital absence of the vas deferens (CAVD), is actually... rather common? Like the medical articles I'm reading are saying 1% of men have this variation (albeit the unilateral variety, which is more common than both vasa deferentia being absent).
The same medical articles say 90% of cases co-occur with absence of the seminal vesicle(s), and it seems that most (60-70%?) cases are a result of the mesonephric duct system not fully developing (i.e. getting some signals to go the female-typed development route -- basically, the typical path is every foetus starts with these ducts, and then if the "female" switch is on during the relevant week of gestation, these ducts go away, otherwise they become the vas deferens & epididymis & seminal vesicles).
I've been uncertain as to whether to categorize this as an intersex variation. The medical community seems to understand it straightforwardly as a mesonephric (Wolffian) duct anomaly, and hence a "DSD". 🤔
But like... every time I search for "CAVD" or "vas deferens aplasia" plus "intersex", the only results I get are medical articles. 😵💫
It's not in @interactyouth's Intersex Variations Glossary, even though they explicitly include the homologous paramesonephric (Müllerian) duct anomalies:
I highlighted the part that notes that paramesonephric duct anomalies don't cause gonadal or hormonal differences, as gives me the impression that this is not a requisite for duct-based variations to be seen as intersex.
And yes, I know the interACT glossary explicitly says it's not comprehensive. But it has some extremely rare variations in it and this is apparently a pretty common thing?
CAVD is not on other lists of intersex variations, such as:
The book "A Comprehensive Guide to Intersex" by Petersen (who is intersex, but also kinda exclusionist)
@dhddmods's intersex guide (which also includes homologous variations)
@intersex-support's list of variations (includes MRKH which is roughly homologous)
Intersex Canada's list of intersex variations (also includes MRKH)
Intersex Aotearoa's list of intersex variations (includes MRKH)
IC4E's list of intersex variations (includes MRKH)
I don't have this variation and I don't know anybody with this variation, and the only posts I've found on social media from people with this variation talk only about infertility and nothing on identity. (And kind of noticeably most of the social media posts come from wives of people with this variation posting about their infertile husbands rather than the guys talking about it themselves... 👀)
So... yeah. I'm kinda stumped. Anybody have any insights why this is (or isn't) considered intersex? It doesn't seem to be like PCOS or gynecomastia where there's Discourse about its categorization... it just seems to not be talked about by the intersex community? 🫤
