13-year-old to begin sex-change

“Sex change for Australian child

An Australian court has issued a landmark ruling to allow a 13-year-old child to begin sex-change procedures.
"Alex", is biologically a girl, but wishes to be considered and referred to as a male.

Brought up as a boy by his father, he opts to wear nappies to school rather than use female toilets.

It is the first time an Australian child has been given legal approval to begin hormone treatment based solely on a psychiatric assessment.

The decision has been both applauded and condemned by commentators.

Arm wrestling

The death of his father and estrangement from his mother had been formative experiences for the child, who legally can only be known as Alex, Australia's Family Court heard.

The court heard that Alex dressed in boys' clothes, and enjoyed activities and games mostly confined to boys.

He beat boys at arm wrestling and was attracted to girls.

Alex now lives as a boy with his aunt, though his legal guardian is the state welfare department - which lodged the application for treatment on his behalf.

He was assessed by a psychiatrist, who concluded he was a "bright, engaging, biologically normal 12-year-old girl who has a strong, persistent, longstanding belief and desire to live life as a male", reported the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper.

The psychiatrist reported that Alex "feels trapped in his body" and experiences depression and suicidal thoughts.

Step by step

In approving the application, the court stipulated that Alex's treatment be phased so that it does not become irreversible until he reaches 16.

The first stage of treatment will be a hormone course to suppress menstruation.

At 16, Alex will undergo irreversible testosterone treatment to develop muscle growth, a deep voice and body hair. Genital surgery will only take place at 18.

continued...”

“yeah, apparently someone's brain can be male, while their body is female. bizarre! i've watched a lot of TV on that kind of stuff lately, LOL! also about people born with ambiguous genitalia. and i decided that if i ever had a baby born like that, i wouldn't get it "fixed" at birth, but leave it alone. thank goodness i've got that decided, huh? ;-)”

“'Ambiguous Genitalia' would be a great band name.”

“How exactly does a female to male sex change work? I mean, do they get a pen1s donar or something? What about the gonads? Seriously, how does that work? Going from male to female is obvious (chop) but the other way around seems like it wouldn't work.”

“Dub, smoke and mirrors.”

“whoa, i didn't read that closely. a girl, but brought up as a boy by the father...hmmm. interesting.”

“C'mon Dub, haven't you ever turned a sock inside out.

Of course this sock would need a little sausage stuffing or all the viagra in the world would not work.”

“That's what I was wondering...even if they could "make" one, would it work? And if s/he gets a donated one...if s/he pays extra can s/he buy a bigger one?”

“This Just In.....

'Alex' now wants to be known as "Miss Anne Thrope'.”

“LMAO”

“female to male involves elongating the clitoris, i believe...
male to female involves using scrotum skin and other skin to create a vagina, and shortening the #&%!$”

“I think the Aussies are hanging upside down for too long. :o)”

“What is a person looking for when they find articles like this?”

“.....lookin' for love in all the wrong places?”

“But Louise Newman, a spokeswoman for the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists, said it had been a sensible decision.

"Here the degree of stress is so great that going through the hormonal and bodily changes of puberty would actually be too distressing for the child to tolerate," she reportedly said.

She knows this as fact? The child is too young to make this decision. I don't believe in sex changes, unless you were born ambiguous. If your body is female or male then your brain is female or male. Maybe daddy warped little Alexis? Maybe Alexis is a Lesbian? If you feel "trapped" then you need therapy not a knife. No offense to anyone but IMHO shrinks still don't know diddly and this kind of operation will be looked upon as barbaric in the future.”

“Dub,

The operation to turn a female into a male is called an "addadicktome".”

“it's not entirely true that if your body looks male or female, then your brain matches your genitalia...i saw it on Law & Order (LOL!). but for real, i've read in several places about post-mortem operations that found people who had gender dysphoria had brains more similar in some respects to the gender they identified with. an example for your enjoyment:

http://www.geocities.com/HotSprings/Chalet/4555/problem.html

the part entitled "A CAUSE OF DYSPHORIA:
BIOLOGY 101 AND THE HUMAN FETUS" is what i'm talking about.

not to say that this would necessarily be the case w/the 13-year-old in question, since there's the prob. of his(?) dad treating him like a boy.”

“You have a strange fascination, lyra! Law & Order--LOL! I get all my information from CSI!”

“I understand the theory but since we know so little about the brain I think it's arrogant to assume so much. The link btw, is a little biased, no? :)”

“i actually don't like Law & Order that much, but my friend was watching it, so i did. that one in particular was horrid! i usually don't want to leave my house for several days after a real scary episode, LOL.

yeah, that link is probably biased, but i don't know enough about the terminology to search for a more "medical" link. i was just looking for something quickly that would explain what i was trying to say.”

“btw bearmagnet, if you want to call me arrogant for entertaining the possibility that there might be a physical explanation for gender dysphoria (and i do agree i sounded like i knew that for sure, when i don't), then right back at ya for saying "If your body is female or male then your brain is female or male." if you admit that "we know so little about the brain," then how could you say that for sure?”

“Did I call you arrogant? I apologize and didn't mean it. I think the theory might be "jumping the gun", perhaps? Backing female body/brain is the most logical, no? It's the standard that must be proven wrong so I think maybe that its not the same "jump".

So I don't think I'm being arrogant but it's not unheard of me to be so. ;)”

“oh. well then, never mind! ;-) and i wasn't pouting all day, really! i only had like 5 mins. to use the computer all day yesterday...”