The term Sex Assigned at Birth arose in the 1950s around the medical care of intersex infants. In particular, the term arose because physicians thought of intersex variants as harmful to the child and that assigning a child a sex and making sure that parents were not confused about the child's sex would be beneficial to the child. This belief lead to medically unnecessary medical procedures on some infants to bring their genitals or gonads more into alignment with the preceived norm of either male or female genitalia. These surgical procedures have lifelong consequences including sterilization. These surgeries are especially harmful for individuals whose gender identity is inconsistent with the sex they were assigned at birth. Sex Assignment at Birth and surgeries to coercievely assign the sex of intersex infants are still broadly practiced.