Gabrielle Colliver was studying for her HSC when she got a diagnosis that doctors said would change her life, and left her feeling isolated and confused. At the age of 17, she was told she was ‘intersex’ and that was the reason she hadn’t yet started her periods. “I was in the middle of starting year 12 so it was pretty full on, and there was a lot of pressure to have an operation really soon to get rid of certain things,” she says. People in Australia may be familiar with the word intersex through its inclusion as the ‘I’ in LGBTIQ+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex, Queer and other communities), but may not understand what it really means.