13-year old to receive sex change

Culture & Society Forum

Teen to undergo sex change - Apr 14, 2004

A prominent bio-ethicist has called on then Australian government to intervene after the Family Court allowed a 13-year-old girl to begin a sex change process.

The decision has been handed down by outgoing Chief Justice Alastair Nicholson.

It is the first time an Australian child, who is biologically one sex, has been given legal approval to begin a gender change through hormone treatment because of purely psychiatric issues.

It means the child known as Alex will begin medical treatment involving the administration of reversible hormonal therapies to start what is colloquially described as a sex change process.

A further stage of hormonal treatment, with some irreversible effects such as the deepening of Alex's voice, the promotion of facial and body hair and muscular development, is allowed to start when Alex is about 16-years old.

Alex will not be able to undergo surgery until she is 18.

But bio-ethicist Nick Tonti-Filippini on Wednesday condemned the court's decision.

He said there was no evidence to suggest the sex-change process was beneficial for adults.

"There is no evidence of the benefits of the procedure in adults let alone a 13-year-old who is undergoing the changes of adolescence," he said.

"The court is endorsing an experimental treatment for a psychiatric problem.

"I would call on the commonwealth attorney general to refer this matter to a higher court."

He said the John Hopkins University in the United States had stopped a research program which allowed people to undergo the sex-change process because the evidence wasn't there to support the procedures.

"Essentially this process will stop this girl from developing into a mature woman, surely it cannot be argued that this will do no harm," he said.

"She will not be able to normally biologically develop leaving her essentially a eunuch.

"This kind of dramatic treatment is not the way to go."

He said he was concerned by the impact of the decision on other adolescents who were having gender issues.

"Adolescence is fraught with difficulty for anybody and I would be concerned about the impact (this decision would have) on other teenagers."

I think it seems toi be the right things for this child. This poor girl (boy? - what do you call peple like this?) when little played with trucks and tanks, not dolls, which is common for some girls when then in school, she wears nappies because she refuses to go to the ladies toilets.

When they went on camp she (it - he?) played with all the boys, giving them arm wrestles and winning, beating even some of the teachers, he joined the cricket team (boys team) and refused to line up with girls when they split the class in to sexes. for assemblies.

The agreement for him to be able to take the hormones relates mainly to his belief that he is a boy and should not be menstrating. His mentruation has saddened him so much he is suicidial.

Any 13 year old who gets that sad about their body and the way they are obvioiusly needs help and she/ he has had heaps of councelling and this seems to be the only option. I think letting him start the process now but waiting until he is 18 to have the surgery is the right way to do it.

so is he/she a girl and wants to change to a boy?

Yes she was born a girl, but feels as though she is in the wrong body, so she will become a boy.

the whole thing gives me the heebie-jeebies

Why does this kid want to be a boy, and why do the parents agree? And what about the weenie situation? Sad, sad, sad.

-HECK!

I don't think souls have sexes. These people are just crazy.

May be 'soul' isn't just the best word? Maybe "personalities" have sexes?

Anyway, in this case you perform either surgery or psychology. But psychology looks better to me.

13 is way too young for such life-altering decisions. They should make the kid wait until 18.

You're right fuscia. I mean, when I was 13 gene therapy would have seemed reasonable so I could get boobies and admire them all day

-HECK!

This is INSANE! When I was 13, I didn't know if I liked boys or girls yet. It's a confusing time for many people.
HOW IN THE HELL can these parent's allow their child to do this? I understand that Alex isn't okay within the body, but she/he is tooooo damn young for a decision like this.

Watch IT wake up after the surgery and decide that it doesn’t want it anymore. Stupid kids and not being able to make up their minds.

I never understood why people thought they were in the wrong body. Why can't she be boyish and still be a girl?

I think probably her parents are whack-jobs.

Her parents probably came up with the idea

Her parents are dead. She/ he lives with her grandmother as a ward of the state. Her grandmother agreed to the decision but it had to be passed by the Courts first, the grandmother stared the Court hearing to see if they could get permission for the drug therapy to start.

All the drugs will do at present is start to change her voice and body hair. They will also make her clitoris swell and protude slightly which is to get her body ready for the operation if she/ he chooses to go through with it when he /she turns 18.

Critics Slam Decision to Approve 'Sex-Change' Treatment for 13-Year-Old

CNSNews.com

An Australian court has given the go-ahead for a 13-year-old girl who wants to be a boy to begin a "sex change" process, prompting strong criticism and calls for government intervention.

A psychiatrist who works in the field expressed concern that gullible youngsters were being misinformed about exactly what could be achieved by medical intervention, while ethicists argued that the child's condition was mental, not biological.

The girl, known only as "Alex," will be allowed to begin taking hormones - initially estrogen and progestogen to suppress menstruation and the feminization of her young body and, at the age of around 16, testosterone to begin the masculinization process.

The testosterone will "have certain irreversible effects such as the deepening of Alex's voice, the promotion of facial and body hair, muscular development and enlargement of the clitoris," according to the summary ruling of Family Court judge Alastair Nicholson.

Once she turns 18 she will be able to have surgery to make changes to her sexual and reproductive organs.

Nicholson, who referred to the girl in his judgment as "he," heard testimony that painted a picture of a girl who regarded herself as a boy from a young age, preferring activities usually enjoyed by boys.

Alex lives with an aunt, and a government welfare department is her guardian, which brought the case on her behalf.

The court heard that her father, with whom she was very close and who treated her as if she was a boy, died when she was five. The court was unable to contact her estranged mother, whose whereabouts are unknown.

With onset of puberty, Alex began to develop suicidal tendencies, which the judge said was "due to his body not matching his male gender identity."

Nicholson said he was satisfied Alex was aware of the physical consequences of the treatment and possible side effects.

"The social implications of the proposed treatment are that Alex will face challenges in his chosen identity in respect of peer relationships, possible bullying and ostracism, but I am satisfied that impressive steps have been taken to anticipate such risks."

Nicholson said if the treatment was not allowed, there was concern that Alex would "revert to unhappiness, behavioral difficulties at home and self-harming behavior."

He also ruled that Alex could change her name on her birth certificate to a boy's name now, and would not have to wait until having surgery to do so - a requirement in some Australian states.

The court ruling has caused a stir.

While transgender campaign groups and some medical bodies approved, leading Australian ethicist Nicholas Tonti-Filippini called the decision "irresponsible" and said medical treatment was being used to treat a mental condition.

He called on the attorney general to review the case and take it to a higher court.

Christian ethical action group Salt Shakers called for a federal government inquiry into "gender reassignment" procedures.

The group argued that there was no way to turn a woman into a man or vice versa successfully.

"Alex will never have a fully functioning penis, never produce sperm or be able to father a child, and if Alex changes her mind again they will never be able to turn her back into the woman she really is," it said.

"She would have to have breast implants and be given an 'artificial' vagina. She will never be able to produce a child or feel a complete woman."

Second thoughts

Last year, an Australian named Alan Finch was the subject of a television documentary that drew widespread attention.

Finch underwent what is known as gender reassignment surgery (GRS) to "become" a woman, but was unhappy with the results and nine years later reverted to living as a man, taking male hormones and considering surgery to restore his male organs.

Finch's story called into question the assessments carried out before GRS: He described how he had failed a psychiatric assessment as his answers were too "masculine." He was allowed a second attempt and, having learned to fake the responses, passed and was approved for surgery.

He also recalled having second thoughts in the operating theater, but being reassured by a surgeon who said he was just having "pre-operation nerves."

Finch, who now runs a group called the Gender Identity Awareness Association, said he believed Alex was "much, much too young" to be making the decision.

He questioned whether the girl had been given adequate psychotherapy to explore the issues of her family background that may contribute to her "gender confusion."

Finch also mulled the potential problems the judge's ruling could lead to, for instance when Alex becomes romantically involved with another girl at school.

"Initially, her girlfriend would have no idea that she is anything other than a young boy. She will be presenting as a boy. Her teachers and parents will say that she is a boy. The girlfriend's parents would also have no idea that their daughter is becoming romantically involved with another girl. Is such a situation morally and ethically acceptable?"

When the girlfriend eventually finds out that her "boyfriend" is actually another girl, this could have implications for her own social-sexual development, he argued.

"Simply changing the sex recorded on the girl's birth certificate and enrolling her into school as a boy cannot begin to address the major issues facing this 13-year-old and those with whom she becomes involved."

'Changing sex, gender not possible'

An Australian psychiatrist who works with patients who struggle with gender identity agreed that the government should investigate the GRS issue.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, he said Thursday the case raised serious issues.

"At the age of 13 a child's very much half-formed. There has to be the greatest concern about 13-year-olds determining that much of their destiny," the psychiatrist said.

"If someone believed they were only meant to have one arm, there's no way you'd sanction the surgical removal of the other," he added.

The psychiatrist argued that authentic sex changes were not possible, and accused many clinics involved in the practice of "coercion, promotion and persuasion."

"People are being injured by misinformation," he said.

Some of his patients said they had been told by staff at clinics "that they can actually be made male or female, that they'll have normal sexual functioning" after GRS.

"No one ever becomes the opposite sex. You might become a facsimile of that, and it might be cosmetically relieving and more convenient for swimming and so on, but that's a very different thing from being a biological male or female."

He recalled that one patient who had male-to-female surgery observed that any sexual pleasure he experienced afterwards was "a highly male pleasure."

"Any sexual pleasure experienced after such an operation is a painful reminder that the operation didn't do anything [to authentically change a person's sex]," the psychiatrist said.

"People do become somewhat feminized by hormone treatment, but not completely. You don't become a woman. You don't have those kind of emotions," he said.

Not only does GRS not offer a true sex change, neither does it fully alter gender, he said. (He differentiated between the two by saying sex is physical and biological, while gender has to do with a social role and has a psychological component).

There may be a biological proclivity towards the other sex, as seen in "tomboys and effeminate males," but gender is something that's "entirely learnt."

One of his patients is a 15-year-old girl who was heading down "the perilous path" towards gender reassignment to male.

The girl's mother bought her a kitten, and "suddenly all the tenderness and love and mothering qualities came to the fore." The mother's "stroke of genius" had effectively cured her daughter, he said.

"You can have a tendency towards pursuits or activities which are more male...but nobody actually becomes the opposite sex."

The psychiatrist also said that a girl's hopes that she would be fully accepted as a male were unlikely to be realized.

"At best, she could end up being a tenth rate male, looked at sideways by all other males...what a terrible life she'd choose for herself."

He said not enough honest investigation had been done into these issues, because most research that had been carried out was done by proponents of GRS, or by transsexuals themselves.

Beyer hails Australian decision on sex change for teen
16.04.2004 2.05 pm

MASTERTON - Wairarapa's transsexual MP Georgina Beyer has hailed a landmark decision by an Australian family court to allow a 13-year-old girl to become a boy as "remarkable and brave".

Ms Beyer said although the girl was very young she presumed the judge had fully taken into account all the professional and medical advice available to him in making his decision.

Normally sex change candidates would have gone through puberty before any major decisions were made.

Ms Beyer said this could account for the judge delaying permission for the girl, known as Alex, undergoing reversible hormone treatment until she is 16, and surgery when she is 18.

"Sex change surgery is a major event and is reliant on the person being fully developed," she said.

The Australian court ruling is the first time legal approval has been given for a child in that country who is biologically one sex to begin to change to the other.

Ms Beyer said she was pleased for the girl and her family and could understand their wish for the sex change to be done so that the child could socialise in her chosen sex and be happy.

"I think it will be a rare occurrence as I would hate to see this ruling open the floodgates for very young people to seek hormone treatment and surgery."

Ms Beyer said as far as she was aware a similar request had never been tested in New Zealand courts.

Before becoming a member of Parliament and while she was mayor of Carterton she was visited by a Masterton mother and her young son.

"The boy was about 11 or 12 and was wanting to be a girl.

"He was displaying effeminate behaviour and his mother was sometimes allowing him to go to school dressed as a girl."

Ms Beyer said the mother and son had sought advice from her and she had told them that as a first step they should seek advice from medical people.

Going to school on some days as a boy and others as a girl only served to ridicule the boy and endanger his safety, she said.

Frankly, I think messing with your body with artificial hormones at such a young age is not good.

M.

why would you want to have a sex change I don't believe in it I think that GOD put us here to be who we are not who we want to be

Thats sort of what I mean.

Who you are INSIDE not outside and Alex wants to change her outside so she feels like its right for her inside. She is not changing WHO she is, just the body she is in.

yeah, but the inside has nothing to do with what sex you are. Sex is based on whether you have a vagina or a penis, not personality or spirit or soul or whatever.

But who are you are inside for most people matches what you look like on the outside. So you and me and most people feel comfortable in our body, comfortable with having a vagina or a penis. This child is not comfortable in their body and to make their outside match their inside so they can be happy this is what they have decided to do.

There's definitely something out of place, I just don't think it's the sex organ

Until you've walked in the shoes of a person going through this, you really have no idea what it's like. I know people... and it's such a horrible thing to know that inside you're one person, but you were born with the parts of the other sex. It's torture for many.

---yeah i still want boobies- just for one day - that would be cool, wouldnt leave the house.


anyway this girl...

The fact that they allow a 13 year old girl to run around in nappies is pretty disturbing too - Im wondering if certain aspects of this childs upbringing are the cause of the girls feelings.

Female-male sex changes are quite unusual arent they - i hear more about men doing it - but less about women - im sure the opperation is more difficult - but probably more reversable

Anyway, yeah 13 definitely too young thats one year older then my brother and he still says yuk when he sees make out scenes on tv. How could she possibly know anything about what her life would be like - she doesnt know anything about the dynamics of life this world gets crazier every damn day.