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DiamondDog
Feb 1, 2007, 2:53 AM
I found this article and IMO 12 is WAY too young to begin hormones. I think it's one thing if you identify as another gender then but it is way too early to start hormones. I have heard about people transitioning and then realizing that they're not trans. I don't think that is the case here but I do think that young Kim should wait on the hormones.

http://www.advocate.com/news_detail_ektid41571.asp

January 31, 2007

German trans girl believed world's youngest

Twelve-year-old Kim is believed to be the youngest person to begin gender reassignment.

Biologically male and originally named Tim by her parents, Kim was officially diagnosed as a transsexual two years ago and has been undergoing hormone treatments.

In the United Kingdom and the United States, doctors generally avoid gender-reassignment surgery until the patients are over 18. The Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association's guidelines state that "surgical intervention should not be carried out prior to adulthood" and that hormones should not be given to those under 16.

However, following extensive mental and physical examinations, German doctors have been given the go-ahead. The child's parents have also expressed enthusiasm to begin immediately.

Kim's father, identified as Lutz P., spoke candidly to German newsmagazines Stern and Der Spiegel about what he considered the nonissue of Kim living as a girl. "We saw Kim as a girl, but not as a problem. Our life was surprisingly normal," he said.

However, once the child encountered puberty, she showed signs of resistance and frustration. "At that stage we realized that she was terrified of growing facial hair and her voice breaking."

While it is unusual to begin treatments for someone so young, Kim's doctors insist that in would be in her best interest to take steps toward surgery because growing up as a man could be psychologically damaging.

"Kim is a mentally well-developed child who appears happy and balanced," Bern Meyenburg, who specializes in transsexuality at Frankfurt University, wrote in his diagnosis. "There is no doubt of the determined wish that was already detectable since early childhood. It would have been very wrong to let Kim grow up to be a man. It is rare to have such a clear-cut case."

The Concerned Women for America's Matt Barber has rendered his own long-distance diagnosis in the case. "This poor kid's situation really undercuts the homosexual lobby's deceptive equality-fluff and hyperbole," Barber said in a statement Monday on the right-wing group's Web site. "It casts a bright light on the truly destructive, bleak, and evil nature of the homosexual agenda.... Rather than addressing the emotional or chemical problems responsible for Tim's gender confusion, his parents and doctors have bought into the homosexual lobby's PC puffery hook, line, and sinker. They're about to rob him of his ability to father a child and render him horribly disfigured and further confused." (Hassan Mirza, Gay.com U.K.)

softfruit
Feb 1, 2007, 1:18 PM
On the other hand, and not dismissing your concerns, but intervening that early avoids having to undo all the stuff that male puberty would have done to her that would have reduced her ability to 'pass' with surgery etc later in life; voicebox changing, body hair, and so forth.

softfruit
Feb 1, 2007, 1:24 PM
That said, gotta admire the wilful conflation of gender and sexuality from that spokesperson for Concerned Knuckledraggers for Fascism at the end of the piece. And even aside from the politics and intellectual vacuity of what he said, he clearly needs a lesson in basic manners.

NorthBiEast
Feb 1, 2007, 6:44 PM
I don't want to appear to conservative on this issue, (I'm usually the most open minded one in my cohort) but I am very suprised by the decision to go ahead with the hormones, (and surgery?) so young.

I can understand Kim's desire to identify and live as a female, and I don't doubt that her feelings are genuine. I commend her parents for being so willing and understanding! I definately understand her concerns about appearance, and I'd bet that her peers all consider her female, so that switch may also increase the amout of teasing she has to deal with.

All that being said, puberty is such a difficult time hormonally to begin with that adding more to the mix just seems impossible to regulate in a safe and healthy way. And, no offense to anybody, but I've never met a teen with that solid sense of self and the judgement to make a permanant change.

:2cents:

TorontoGuy2007
Feb 1, 2007, 7:05 PM
wow, that does seem very young. then again, i'm not in her shoes so i can't really comment. if it feels right, then good for her and the parents and doctors to be supportive. i just hope there won't be any physical health complications..

Long Duck Dong
Feb 2, 2007, 10:48 PM
i will withhold my judgment until i have received copies of a assessent done by a independent.....

there is more to the story than the media story, and it appears that it may have been a case of parental pressure and conditioning

cos the assessment is confidential, i will not be able to post it without breaching a number of legal guidelines so i will share what i can without getting myself in the shit.....i should have it in a few days

wanderingrichard
Feb 2, 2007, 11:11 PM
am sitting here wondering if anyone involved in writing this piece of effluvia ever checked on india's "3rd sex" aka the Hizra, and how old they normally are when they start transitioning?? i doubt this kid is the youngest ever, just one of the most celebrated [ vilified seems a better term here. i seriously disbelieve a lot of what most european media crows about due to their propensity of over blown sensationalism]

Lorcan
Feb 3, 2007, 9:26 PM
On the other hand, and not dismissing your concerns, but intervening that early avoids having to undo all the stuff that male puberty would have done to her that would have reduced her ability to 'pass' with surgery etc later in life; voicebox changing, body hair, and so forth.


And... all the male puberty stuff can not be undone by estrogen. If male puberty happens she will look like a male with lipstick on. Estrogen mitifies the effects but doesn't completly reverse them.