Endocrine Abstracts

Background/Aim: With the introduction of a third sex/gender category (’divers’) in German law in 2018, new legal possibilities emerged for individuals whose sex/gender does not align with binary categories. This exploratory study examines how parents of children and adolescents with variants of sex development (DSD) navigate decisions regarding their child’s legal sex/gender registration in light of this legislative change, and which factors shape their engagement with this new option.

Methods: Drawing on narrative interviews with parents (n = 19), we analyzed parental decision-making regarding sex/gender registration, how parents understand and negotiate these options, and what meanings they attribute to the ‘divers’ category.

Results: Our preliminary findings reveal substantial variation in how parents approach the registration decision. Some parents view ‘divers’ as a self-evident choice reflecting their child’s bodily reality; others deem it irrelevant to their specific situation, raise concerns about its political implications, or express pragmatic worries about navigating within predominantly binary-structured environments. Several parents view the category as a temporary placeholder for their child’s future self-determination, rather than as a fixed identity category. Beyond examining how parents conceptualize the ‘divers’ category, we also investigated what practical significance, if any, they attribute to it. For some, it appears to shape their conception of expectations about how their child will be perceived and accepted in social contexts. Others, however, approach it as a purely administrative matter, without attributing broader social significance to it. Parental understandings of the ‘divers’ category vary considerably, reflecting divergent conceptualizations of what the category signifies and what relevance it holds for their situation.

Conclusions: These variations in meaning-making suggest that sex/gender registration decisions involve not merely formal choices, but fundamentally different interpretations of the category’s social, legal, and personal significance.