Monday, February 20, 2012

Transgendered Kids on the Rise?

This article was passed along from a friend. It comes from "Yahoo News". I'm sure all of us in the transgendered community follow with interest the stories concerning very young transgender kids.
The medical journal Pediatrics has reported a small but growing number of teens and even younger children who think they were born the wrong sex are getting support from parents and from doctors who give them sex-changing treatments.
"Pediatricians need to know these kids exist and deserve treatment, said 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.
"If you open the doors, these are the kids who come. They're out there. They're in your practices," Spack said in an interview.
Switching gender roles and occasionally pretending to be the opposite sex is common in young children. But these kids are different. They feel certain they were born with the wrong bodies.
Some are labeled with "gender identity disorder," a psychiatric diagnosis. But Spack is among doctors who think that's a misnomer. Emerging research suggests they may have brain differences more similar to the opposite sex.
Spack said by some estimates, 1 in 10,000 children have the condition."
 
Of course there are many ethical  and non ethical opinions concerning treatment of young transsexual kids but I wonder how many of us would have taken the path so very early in life if it was offered to us?
Chances are many of us would have made the one in ten thousand cut!

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