Long term psychological outcome for women with congenital adrenal hyperplasia: cross sectional survey.

Management of conditions associated with intersex, such as congenital adrenal hyperplasia, is controversial. A recent editorial in the BMJ called for long term studies of outcome. Females (genotype XX) with congenital adrenal hyperplasia are born with ambiguous genitalia, have feminising genitoplasty soon after birth, and often have repeated genital surgery and genital examinations in adolescence. This has raised fears that the condition and its management adversely affect psychosexual development or psychosocial adjustment. The “serious deficiency of any evidence base” on long term outcome prompted us to investigate the hypothesis that psychiatric morbidity is increased and that social and psychological adjustment is impaired in women with congenital adrenal hyperplasia.