what do you think?

[iMischa]

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/...-become-a-girl

A 10-year-old boy has been allowed to start hormone treatment to help him become a girl.

The Family Court heard the boy, known as Jamie, had thought of himself as a girl since he was a toddler, the Daily Telegraph reports.
Jamie insisted on wearing girls' clothes and he refused to use the boys' toilets at school.

The child's mother said he would become upset when she tried to encourage him to act like a boy.

Doctors diagnosed Jamie with gender identity disorder when he was seven.
He began dressing like a girl at home and his family started treating him like a girl in 2008.

The next year his parents moved him to a school that accepted him as a girl.
The court was told it was crucial Jamie begin hormone treatment before male puberty set in and he started developing facial hair and a deep voice.

Meanwhile, new laws in the UK will allow children from the age of 12 to have access to drugs to block the onset of puberty.

British doctors used to be prevented from offering children with gender identity issues any medical intervention.

The National Research Ethics Service has given approval for a specialist clinic in London to prescribe the drugs.

not really after a debate on whether or not people believe in Gender identity disorder, but whether or not it should be treated this young in this way?

i'm of two minds about it. are there cases where a child dx with this hits puberty or just older and snaps out of it?

[decambla]

I'm also undecided about what age hormone treatment should be available

I do however applaud the parents for their support of their child. If only all people in this position had their parents love and support.

[nerdgirl99]

I was thinking of posting the same story! I have no idea where I stand on this one and am very curious about other's thoughts. On the one hand 10 just seems so young but on the other I think it would be worse to be forced to turn into a person you don't identify with. Puberty is hard enough as it is. Such a confusing situation but I think it's excellent that the parents acknowledged the problem instead of hiding and denying.

[iMischa]

bump for the morning hubbers

[Lemonhead]

I think 10 is too young to really know who you are. Her brain hasnt matured enough to be able to make permanent decisions like this.

[earlgrey]

I guess the 'earlier the better' for puberty reasons, it would probably be easier to take hormones and grow breasts and stuff before you have an adams apple and a beard, kwim?

[earlgrey]

and before it gets taken the wrong way I did not mean giving toddlers hormones or something stupid, I just think having to go through puberty and 'become a man' when you really are not one would be very hard and possibly damaging.

[Bubmum]

Any surgery would be delayed for years, so allowing a child to live the gender they "feel" is not harmful imo (more liberating). It is no different than giving a teenaged girl the pill, that alters your body chemistry unaturally.

In what I know from personal experiences with trangendered individuals (or anyone I know with anything that falls beyond the accepted norm of heterosexual definition), people have known from very early on, as soon as they began discovering and identifying the differences that make us all unique.

It would just be so hard to be living in a body that you don't identify with. All of us have something about our body that we want to change. Imagine if that difference made you live a life that you weren't aligned with, influenced how you were meant to behave on every level.

As far as I am aware, the only problems have occured with parents choosing gender for their children. It's so sad that as a society we have to put every single person in a box, and expect certain idealised behaviours. Maybe this wouldn't be such an important decision so early on, if there wasn't such a radical, enforced, imaginary line between the sexes.

[One of THOSE mums!]

I think it has to be decided on a case by case basis, but definitely available before puberty.
In the example, the child clearly thinks it is meant to be a girl. I think battling this is hard enough. Without then having all the changes of puberty to rub salt into already deep emotional wounds.
It can't have been an easy decision for the parents.

[Myztiks#1Fan]

i dont know where i stand on the whole medication that they will now be taking but i am proud of the parents for standing by their child in this.

i would like to think i would do the same for coop too if he felt this way.