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In reporting of recent UK Supreme Court rulings about the use of female-only changing facilities by transgender individuals, I’ve noticed some media outlets conflating transgender identities with intersex conditions — and, in some cases, even with chromosomal differences that do not constitute intersex conditions at all.

One of those conditions I know intimately, having been diagnosed with it twenty years ago.

Now, I do understand that identity is deeply personal and that some people with this condition may indeed identify as female or non-binary.

I also recognise that some individuals are born with genuine intersex conditions, where reproductive anatomy doesn’t fit typical definitions of male or female. There are also rare cases where someone may have male chromosomes yet develop biologically female traits.

Nevertheless, we must be honest about the biology here. The vast majority of people with my aneuploidy are biologically male. Our condition is not intersex. We are born with male reproductive organs. While some may experience features like gynecomastia, broader hips or atypical fat distribution, these traits do not make us biologically female, nor do they render our condition intersex.

We do not possess both sets of reproductive organs or the biological ambiguity found in some intersex conditions. While some individuals with the condition may have slightly elevated oestrogen levels compared to typical males, we do not produce oestrogen in levels remotely comparable to biologically female individuals.

We are, simply put, men with a chromosomal variation that can affect things like fertility, hormone balance and psychosocial development.

Why does this matter? Because blending these categories — transgender, intersex, and chromosomal differences — doesn’t help anyone. It clouds public understanding, misrepresents people like myself, and ultimately undermines the distinct experiences of all three groups.

Transgender individuals navigate a different journey, centred on gender identity, not biological sex. Intersex people face unique medical and social challenges tied to ambiguous or atypical anatomy.

But those of us with chromosome disorders often don’t fit either narrative. We deserve to be understood on our own terms, not used as rhetorical leverage in debates we didn’t choose to enter.

It’s time to stop lumping unlike things together for the sake of political expediency. Not only is it misleading, but it’s also unfair. As you’ll note, I still can’t bring myself to name the condition all these years on, such is the volume of misinformation that surrounds it.

Misrepresentation in debates like this a case in point.