Information, Beliefs, and Gender Stereotypes: Analysis of Sociocognitive Factors Influencing Healthcare for Intersex Individuals

Intersex individuals still face major barriers in healthcare, largely stemming from in-sufficient professional training, persistent cultural stereotypes, and outdated biomedi-cal frameworks. Despite growing ethical and legal attention to intersex rights, the so-ciocognitive factors influencing healthcare professionals’ knowledge and attitudes remain poorly understood. Objective: To examine how information, beliefs about gender determinism, and adherence to gender roles influence healthcare professionals’ attitudes toward intersex individuals. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was con-ducted with 210 healthcare professionals from Spain. Participants completed Intersex Knowledge Questionnaire, Bem Sex-Role Inventory, short Version and Gender Deter-minism Scale. Results: Higher levels of conceptual, procedural, legislative knowledge and prior contact with intersex individuals were consistently associated with more af-firmative, non-normative attitudes toward intersex healthcare. Neither gender deter-minism nor adherence to traditional gender roles explained professionals’ attitudes. Differences also emerged by discipline: physicians concentrated in corrective and am-bivalent attitudes. Among medical specialties, surgical fields and pediatrics remained closer to interventionist traditions, while primary care and endocrinology demon-strated greater openness to non-normative perspectives. Conclusions: Intersex healthcare attitudes are primarily driven by deficits in training and the invisibility of intersex issues in medical education. Knowledge (conceptual, procedural, and espe-cially legislative) acts as the most immediate modulator of professional attitudes.