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Sky, do you really believe that an 11 year old child should be taking hormone therapy?
All of us remember puberty with abhorrence.
I trust the parents are responsive to their child's needs.
"Parents may be concerned about a child who appears to be gender-nonconforming for a variety of reasons. Some children express a great deal of distress about their assigned sex at birth or the gender roles they are expected to follow. Some children experience difficult social interactions with peers and adults because of their gender expression. Parents may become concerned when what they believed to be a “phase” does not pass. Parents of gender-nonconforming children may need to work with schools and other institutions to address their children’s particular needs and ensure their children’s safety. It is helpful to consult with mental health and medical professionals familiar with gender issues in children to decide how to best address these concerns. It is not helpful to force the child to act in a more gender-conforming way. Peer support from other parents of gender-nonconforming children may also be helpful.
How do transsexuals make a gender transition?Transitioning from one gender to another is a complex process and may involve transition to a gender that is neither traditionally male nor female. People who transition often start by expressing their preferred gender in situations where they feel safe. They typically work up to living full time as members of their preferred gender by making many changes a little at a time. While there is no “right” way to transition genders, there are some common social changes transgender people experience that may involve one or more of the following: adopting the appearance of the desired sex through changes in clothing and grooming, adopting a new name, changing sex designation on identity documents (if possible), using hormone therapy treatment, and/or undergoing medical procedures that modify their body to conform with their gender identity.
Every transgender person’s process or transition differs. Because of this, many factors may determine how the individual wishes to live and express their gender identity. Finding a qualified mental health professional who is experienced in providing affirmative care for transgender people is an important first step. A qualified professional can provide guidance and referrals to other helping professionals. Connecting with other transgender people through peer support groups and transgender community organizations is also helpful.
The World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), a professional organization devoted to the treatment of transgender people, publishes The Standards of Care for Gender Identity Disorders, which offers recommendations for the provision of gender affirmation procedures and services.
Answers to your Questions About Transgender People, Gender Identity, and Gender Expression
That's a cop out. Do YOU believe that anyone should be giving hormone therapy to a 7 year old (yeah it started when he was 7)?
The recommended medical treatment for transgender children is to allow them to
live in their affirmed gender. This requires that the childs gender identity be
respected and accepted by others. It is imperative for the health and well being
of children with this complex medical condition that they be allowed to live fully
in the appropriate gender role in all aspects of their lives, including when
participating in social activities such as sports. Transgender children should be
called by their preferred name, be referred to by gender-appropriate pronouns,
and be permitted to wear clothing and uniforms that match their affirmed
gender. Medical treatments such as hormones and surgery are not appropriate
medical treatment for transgender children prior to adolescence.
http://www.transgenderlaw.org/resources/trans_children_in_sports.pdf
Robert and Danielle soon came to find out about a new, highly controversial, treatment for preteen kids with gender identity issues. The treatment allows kids to postpone puberty and avoid developing the physical attributes of the sex they were born with.
The treatment has been offered in the United States only for around four years. Essentially, kids who meet the criteria for gender identity disorder are given monthly injections of a medication that blocks their bodies from releasing sex hormones. This means that while the children continue to grow taller, for the three or four years they are on the medication, they are kept from maturing sexually.
Norman Spack, an endocrinologist at Children's Hospital in Boston, was one of the earliest practitioners of this treatment in the United States. He explains that doctors have actually been able to block sex hormones for decades the technique has been used to treat everything from prostate cancer to fibroids but it was only about 10 years ago that a medical group in the Netherlands decided to use it on kids like Armand.
"They had the idea. ... They decided to see what would happen if they took such a child that was in such distress over their body, [and stopped their body from] taking the form that they feared," he says.
To put off puberty, children - usually between 10 and 13 are injected with hormone blockers once a month. Spack explains that the blockers only affect the gonads, the organs responsible for turning boys into men and girls into women.
"If you can block the gonads, that is the ovary [in women] or the testis [in men], from making its sex steroids, that being estrogen or testosterone, then you can literally prevent ... almost all the physical differences between the genders," Spack explains.
Parents Consider Treatment to Delay Son's Puberty : NPR
Early hormone treatment would result in less suffering for a transgendered individual later on.
This is disgusting."Most adult transsexuals confess to having experienced a hatred for their gender right from early life - well before puberty. Many remember puberty with abhorrence, because of the hormone-induced changes in body characteristics which they perceived as totally alien to their gender identity. Often, it is around the pubertal period that most transsexuals reinforce their determination to rid themselves of their primary & secondary characteristics."
ANDROLOGY :Transsexualism and sex change operations-Transsexualism,sex change operations,sexual disorders,impotence
I don't know if it's more than likely, but I DO know that the prepubescent brain, irrespective of gender or affliction, is under-developed and very different from the resultant adult brain. So many changes occur in the brain during puberty because those developmental changes are triggered by the hormones - the hormones they are blocking.More than likely this kid would have changed his mind if they just let him go through puberty, now they are holding that back and dramatically altering his life.
Any physician knows this, too. I hold the physician more accountable than the parents for just that reason.
This is just stunning.
But, it's a good reminder to those of us who are tempted not to get second and even third opinions about medical procedures because we have some sort of misplaced faith in a physician.
All I know is 11 year olds have no business making decisions like this, when I was 11 I thought girls were icky and never thought I would like them, a year later I felt completely different about them.
Robert and Danielle soon came to find out about a new, highly controversial, treatment for preteen kids with gender identity issues. The treatment allows kids to postpone puberty and avoid developing the physical attributes of the sex they were born with.
The treatment has been offered in the United States only for around four years. Essentially, kids who meet the criteria for gender identity disorder are given monthly injections of a medication that blocks their bodies from releasing sex hormones. This means that while the children continue to grow taller, for the three or four years they are on the medication, they are kept from maturing sexually.
Norman Spack, an endocrinologist at Children's Hospital in Boston, was one of the earliest practitioners of this treatment in the United States. He explains that doctors have actually been able to block sex hormones for decades the technique has been used to treat everything from prostate cancer to fibroids but it was only about 10 years ago that a medical group in the Netherlands decided to use it on kids like Armand.
"They had the idea. ... They decided to see what would happen if they took such a child that was in such distress over their body, [and stopped their body from] taking the form that they feared," he says.
To put off puberty, children - usually between 10 and 13 are injected with hormone blockers once a month. Spack explains that the blockers only affect the gonads, the organs responsible for turning boys into men and girls into women.
"If you can block the gonads, that is the ovary [in women] or the testis [in men], from making its sex steroids, that being estrogen or testosterone, then you can literally prevent ... almost all the physical differences between the genders," Spack explains.
Parents Consider Treatment to Delay Son's Puberty : NPR
Early hormone treatment would result in less suffering for a transgendered individual later on.
Read the whole article, Sky. The program makes the kids sterile. In America, only 20% of those taking the therapy actually went on to become the other gender.
Do some research about puberty.Robert and Danielle soon came to find out about a new, highly controversial, treatment for preteen kids with gender identity issues. The treatment allows kids to postpone puberty and avoid developing the physical attributes of the sex they were born with.
The treatment has been offered in the United States only for around four years. Essentially, kids who meet the criteria for gender identity disorder are given monthly injections of a medication that blocks their bodies from releasing sex hormones. This means that while the children continue to grow taller, for the three or four years they are on the medication, they are kept from maturing sexually.
Norman Spack, an endocrinologist at Children's Hospital in Boston, was one of the earliest practitioners of this treatment in the United States. He explains that doctors have actually been able to block sex hormones for decades the technique has been used to treat everything from prostate cancer to fibroids but it was only about 10 years ago that a medical group in the Netherlands decided to use it on kids like Armand.
"They had the idea. ... They decided to see what would happen if they took such a child that was in such distress over their body, [and stopped their body from] taking the form that they feared," he says.
To put off puberty, children - usually between 10 and 13 are injected with hormone blockers once a month. Spack explains that the blockers only affect the gonads, the organs responsible for turning boys into men and girls into women.
"If you can block the gonads, that is the ovary [in women] or the testis [in men], from making its sex steroids, that being estrogen or testosterone, then you can literally prevent ... almost all the physical differences between the genders," Spack explains.
Parents Consider Treatment to Delay Son's Puberty : NPR
Early hormone treatment would result in less suffering for a transgendered individual later on.
Read the whole article, Sky. The program makes the kids sterile. In America, only 20% of those taking the therapy actually went on to become the other gender.
Do some research about gender reassignment.
Recently, clinics in North America and Europe that specialize in children with gender identity disorder have begun recommending puberty-blocking hormones as early as age 12, and cross-sex hormone treatment as early as 16. The puberty-blockers prevent breast growth in biological girls, and keep boys from developing a booming baritone and facial hair. In a world where trans people have been murdered simply for crossing the gender line, the safety of being covert has appeal.
Puberty-blockers can also reduce the need for expensive surgeries down the roadbiological women won't need mastectomies; biological men won't need surgeries to shave down masculine facial structures and Adam's apples. Transgender adults who never go through their bodies' natural puberty will be able to pass more easily.
Transgender kids: How young is too young for a sex change? - Page 2 - News - Minneapolis - City Pages
Oh, I'm not judging the parents as much as I judge the physician.Bottom line. If you're clueless about the suffering that transgender people go through you have no business judging the parents of a transgender kid.
