Dr.Mangle i presume...
Posted on 01/28/2007 9:53:56 AM PST by wagglebee
A German boy, now 14, is believed to be the youngest patient in the world pursuing gender reassignment after convincing doctors two years ago he wanted to live as a female.
Doctors say the boy, born "Tim," has considered himself female since he was two.
According to his parents, Tim tried on his older sisters clothes and played with her Barbie dolls, announcing, "I'm a girl." The boy was distraught after every haircut, they said, and at four, he took a pair of scissors and threatened to "cut off my thing!" After that incident, Tim was called "Kim" by his family.
"We always saw Kim as a girl, but not as a problem," the father, who was not identified, told Der Spiegel. "In fact, our life was surprisingly normal."
Puberty brought about a drop in Kim's voice and concern for the child's future.
"At that stage we realized that she was terrified of growing facial hair and her voice breaking," said the father.
The family sought medical advice about a possible sex change for Kim, with mixed results.
"Hormone treatment! Gender adjustment! How could you possibly do this to the child?" the family's pediatrician asked the father. Some psychiatrists suggested Kim be placed under observation in a psychiatric hospital.
Eventually, the family contacted Dr. Bernd Meyenburg, the head of a clinic for children and adolescents with sexual identity problems at Frankfurt University. He concluded that Kim represented the "rare ... clear-cut case" for intervention before puberty initiated irreversible changes to his body.
"It would have been a crime to let her grow up as a man," Meyenburg said.
According to Dr. Achim Wuesthof, the endocrinologist who is treating the teen, the procedure to arrest the course of male puberty has been successful thus far. Even though children under 16 are not permitted to undergo sex change in other countries, he and his colleagues thought it best to start early in Kim's case.
"To the best of my knowledge, Kim is the youngest sex change patient in the world," Wuesthof told the London Sunday Telegram. "According to German law, two independent psychiatrists must confirm that the child is indeed transsexual and approve the sex change. Once that has been done, it is best to start as early as possible."
For legal reasons, surgery to remove Kim's male genitals cannot be performed until age 18.
"From a purely medical standpoint we are dealing with the mutilation of a biologically healthy body," said Meyenburg. "We face a real dilemma. If we do something about it, it's irreversible. And if we allow nature to take its course, that too is irreversible."
Meyenburg said he had mixed feelings about the fact that more and more – and younger – patients are seeking him out for advice.
It never fails to amaze me that the learned doctors are willing to administer the opposite sex hormone and mutilate the child before trying the same sex hormones to see if they can realign the person with his whole, natural body. Apparently they think the mind is not affected by the hormonal imbalance, and that imagining one would be happier as the opposite sex is a rational decision in a person with an obvious hormonal imbalance.
Sez who? There are many brain studies that would contradict your diktat.
There was a televised special a few months back. Horrible case. The entire family was tortured for decades. It is unfortunately one of the primary bases for hormonally altering people to this day. The published results were essentially fabricated and are still used to justify hormonally altering mentally ill people like this child.
The parents support this ? Lock em up on child abuse and put the kid somewhere safe and where wanting to dress like a girl will get him some applied psychology of the pavolvian genre that will condition him to not do stupid things.
A crime?! I certainly would not consider it a crime to let a boy grow up to be a man.
Well Im just confused. They start calling the boy "Kim" to prevent him from "cutting it off" but now that he is 14 its okay to have someone else do it? these parents are royally screwed up!
At 12, I'd say that the hormones aren't really in full swing yet. Shouldn't he have to "give it a shot" before they whack anything off?
Dear lord.
When I was 3, I used to beg my parents to let me wear a boy's bathing suit and wear boy's clothes. Because my best friend was my brother and I felt it was more fun to be a boy than a girl.
I grew out of it! Jeez, if they had encouraged it, I don't know.
"Oh, he knew when he was two years old!" Yeah, and when I was two years old, I knew that the solution to the Gulf War was to give the people in the hot place some icecream and then they'd feel better and the war could stop.
This is ridiculous. What sort of doctor says, "Oh yes, your son is a woman trapped in a man's body," about a 12 year old boy?
The human reproductive organs are either male or female. That is simply a fact. If one has one type of organ and believes oneself a different sex, then one unfortunately has a disordered understanding that should not be encouraged, particularly in the young.
Apparently, if he has a "package" and considers himself a female he will want for "two" for the rest of his life.
Hermaphrodites are born that way and wish for one.....
Parents aren't to be Gods over their children, but Gods Servants in Guiding them, nurturing and raising them for His Purpose.
Too many parents today either believe parenting is a fun, play as you go relationship, or they don't realize it's really an accountable responsibility, there are many who are God fearing, compassionate & strong parents..
then you have parents faced with a situation like this... children are innocent, trusting and easily spoiled-easy to believe they are soo sweet they have rights. The only right they have is to listen, respect and learn... when they are adults and able to be held accountable for individual decisions,, then they can have control of their lives.
These two parents need to step out from behind/beside their child, and stand in front of Him, Just as Christ does His children.
Some people won't like me bringing God into this, but Christ relationship in respect to God-His Father, and many other biblical men, are good displays of fatherhood vs childhood, their positions and respects.
All we can do for this child is pray for an angel of intervening on Gods behalf, and behalf of what's left of that Parent-child relationship.
After these parents let this happen, they will grieve the rest of their lives, as he is thrown against certain trials in his life, they will always ask: "Did we do the right thing?"
What a curse that would be for all!
Ducks speak of those doctors everyday.
Too many parents today have lost sight of the lack of "real" concerns toward the health of their offspring with the wonderful advances made to make our children the epitome of health these days.
We no longer focus on life threatening concerns for they for the most part don't exist.
Pragmatic thinkers take this lack of life threatening concern as a good thing while the emotionally driven take it as a void in their life.
That's one of the reasons that boy allowed the book to be written. He didn't want anyone to go through what he did.
You won't get any argument from me. I happen to believe as you do. God gives us a great blessing when he allows us to have children, but as parents we need to remember that our children are HIS first and foremost. What an awesome and beautiful gift and privilege.
I doubt they did it to keep him from cutting it off, they probably just did it to make him happy. Though given the way they treated him (not "her") I wouldn't be surprised if they were irresponsible enough to let a 4 year old play with scissors capable of cutting off a body part.
WTF? This is abuse.
Dr.Mangle i presume...
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