[5] In her Sexing the Body: gender politics and the construction of sexuality, she introduces the following example: A group of physicians from Saudi Arabia recently reported on several cases of XX intersex children with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH), a genetically inherited malfunction of the enzymes that aid in making steroid hormones.

[5] In a review for Politics and the Life Sciences, Laurette T. Liesen writes the book is "based on the premise that science is a social construction in which "created truths" about sex and gender are imposed on individuals" and "In a rather circular argument, Fausto-Sterling describes how studies on sexual differences in genetics, hormones, and the brain, as well as medical practices used on intersexuals, are gender-biased.

"[7] A review in Hypatia by Heidi E. Grasswick notes that Fausto-Sterling uses the metaphor of a möbius strip "in an effort to describe not only the organization of the book, but more importantly, the complex nature of the relationship between the social and the material that she is striving to articulate through her detailed analyses of particular research programs.

"[8] According to Publishers Weekly, "As in her now classic book, Myths of Gender, Fausto-Sterling draws on a wealth of scientific and medical information, along with social, anthropological and feminist theory, to make the case that "choosing which criteria to use in determining sex, and choosing to make the determination at all, are social decisions for which scientists can offer no absolute guidelines.

It is a popular book intended to introduce a nonscientific lay audience to the conceptual messiness of contemporary sex difference research.