Offering sex-changing treatment to children younger than 18 raises ethical concerns, and their parents’ motives need to be closely examined.For background, read Toddler Says He's a Girl, 'Parents' Say OK and also read ABC News: Boy Decides He's a Girl, Age 10 as well as Sexually Confused Boy Becomes Girl Scout, Media Hit
-- Dr. Margaret Moon, American Academy of Pediatrics’s Bioethics Committee
For links to even more news on the transgender tragedy perpetrated on children, see this links list.
-- From "Without Treatment, Mental Health Problems Plague Transgender Kids" by Stephanie Pappas, LiveScience Senior Writer 2/20/12
In a sample of children and adolescents treated at the Endocrine Division at Children's Hospital Boston, young people who experienced distress about the "mismatch" between their body's sex and their mental gender had high rates of psychiatric complications (before any gender treatment). Kids who don't get treatment, whether for financial reasons or because their parents aren't supportive, likely have higher rates of psychiatric problems, said study researcher Scott Leibowitz, a psychiatrist at Children's Hospital Boston.
Transgender people — people who feel that their biological sex does not reflect their true gender — have astonishingly high rates of mental health problems: A 2010 survey found that 41 percent of transgender people in the U.S. have attempted suicide.
Researchers attributed those rates to discrimination and stigma, as well as a lack of laws protecting transgender people from employment discrimination. Poor insurance coverage of hormones and other treatments to help a transgender person transition to their desired gender also account for the rates, the researchers found.
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From "Sex-change treatment for kids on the rise" by Lindsey Tanner, Associated Press Medical Writer 2/20/12
. . . children who think they were born the wrong sex are getting support from parents and from doctors who give them sex-changing treatments, according to reports in the medical journal Pediatrics.
These children sometimes resort to self-mutilation to try to change their anatomy; the other two journal reports note that some face verbal and physical abuse and are prone to stress, depression and suicide attempts. Spack said those problems typically disappear in kids who've had treatment and are allowed to live as the opposite sex.
Guidelines from the Endocrine Society endorse transgender hormone treatment . . . (so that) boys switching to girls will develop breasts and girls transitioning to boys will be flat-chested if puberty is blocked and sex-hormones started soon enough . . .
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From "Gender Identity Issues Can Harm Kids' Mental Health: Study" by Lisa Esposito, HealthDay Reporter (posted at U.S. News & World Report) 2/20/12
"These kids are really normal -- they just want to be the other gender," said [Dr. Walter] Meyer, a psychiatrist who works with transgender patients at the University of Texas Medical Branch, in Galveston. "The ones who are well-adjusted and well-accepted by their families and at school don't have the psychiatric issues."
"We've seen in studies of gender nonconforming LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender] youth that what most people think of as abuse comes from a place of concern and fear on the part of parents -- that is, they think they can help their kid by 'toughening them up' or teaching them to 'fit in,' " [professor of family studies at the University of Arizona, Stephen] Russell said. "Many parents literally have no framework for understanding gender nonconformity in children."
Meyer, meanwhile, said he sees signs of growing awareness and acceptance, spurred by the media. Once parents are onboard, treatment can begin, sometimes quite early, he said.
"At age 5 or 6, treatment is mainly psychotherapy and working with family to help them [kids] adjust," Meyer said. "Sometimes that means reassuring them and letting them dress up at home [as the opposite gender]. Some might start school taking on a new gender."
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From "More transgender kids seeking help, getting treatment" by Diane Mapes, MSNBC 2/20/12
Some estimates say about 1 in 10,000 children may have GID, Dr. Norman Spack, author of one of three reports published Monday and director of one of the nation's first gender identity medical clinics, at Children's Hospital Boston . . .
Laura Edwards-Leeper, a psychologist specializing in youth gender issues at Seattle's Children's Hospital and co-author of the Pediatrics study, says at her hospital, “more and more people are banging down the doors to get in. I'm guessing in part this is due to media attention and people becoming a bit more accepting about it. Parents are becoming more open to the possibility and willing to get help for their kids."
Sometimes, the response of parents -- or others -- can be quite damaging. A related study of childhood abuse in the current issue of Pediatrics found gender nonconformity before age 11 was a risk indicator for physical, sexual, and psychological abuse in childhood as well as probable PTSD.
"By stopping puberty early on, a boy won't grow as tall, his facial hair won't come in, his Adam's apple won't develop," [Edwards-Leeper] says. "All the things that make it difficult for adult transgender people to pass are eliminated. The quality of life for transgender people who have been fortunate enough to receive puberty blocking medication is so much better."
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Also read Transgenderism is 'Delusion' Says Victim
