lily
01-29-2007, 01:09 AM
Link (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/01/28/wkim28.xml)
Unhappy as a boy, Kim became youngest ever transsexual at 12
By Bojan Pancevski in Vienna, Sunday Telegraph
Last Updated: 1:12am GMT 29/01/2007
A boy of 12 is believed to have become the world's youngest sex change
patient after convincing doctors that he wanted to live the rest of his life
as a female.
The boy - originally called Tim, but now known as Kim - has started to
receive hormone treatment, in preparation for the operation that will
eventually complete the sex change.
Tim was diagnosed as a transsexual two years ago, when doctors and
psychiatrists concluded that his claims to be "in the wrong body" were so
deeply felt that he required treatment. The therapy involves artificially
arresting male puberty, with a series of potent hormone injections before
the administration of female hormones to initiate the development of
features such as breasts.
Now aged 14, and officially registered as a female, Kim looks like a
typical girl of her age. She dresses in fashionable clothes, has long blonde
hair and blue eyes and dreams of moving to Paris to become a fashion
designer. Her parents, who initially assumed their son was going through a
temporary phase, eventually grew accustomed to seeing him as a girl.
The family's full identity has not been made public. But Kim's father,
known as Lutz P. - speaking to the German publications Der Spiegel and
Stern - said that as a child, the boy liked to play with Barbie dolls,
enjoyed wearing dresses and, from the age of two, insisted that he was a
girl. "We saw Kim as a girl, but not as a problem. Our life was surprisingly
normal."
Kim reacted badly to the first signs of puberty, he said. "At that
stage we realised that she was terrified of growing facial hair and her
voice breaking."
Kim's parents consulted psychiatrists across Germany. Some condemned
their support of their child's desire to undergo a sex change, or suggested
that Kim be kept under observation in a closed psychiatric ward. But others
agreed that the child should receive therapy, because growing up to be a man
would have damaged her personality.
Dr Bern Meyenburg, the head of a clinic for children and adolescents
with identity disturbances at Frankfurt University, concluded that the child
was serious. He wrote in his diagnosis: "Kim is a mentally well-developed
child who appears happy and balanced. There is no doubt of the determined
wish, that was already detectable since early childhood. It would have been
very wrong to let Kim grow up to be a man. It is rare to have such a
clear-cut case."
Kim is reportedly fully accepted by her fellow school pupils and
teachers. The costs of the procedure are being covered by health insurance,
as the condition qualifies as an illness.
Dr Achim Wuesthof, an endocrinologist specialising in children and
adolescents, who is treating the teenager at a clinic in Hamburg, said the
procedure had been a success so far. Speaking to The Sunday Telegraph, he
said that even though under-16s were not permitted to undergo a sex change
in other countries, he and his colleagues felt that in this case it had been
best to start earlier. He said: "To the best of my knowledge, Kim is the
youngest sex change patient in the world. 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.
"Transsexuals experience the onset of puberty, and the physical
changes it brings, as a serious trauma. But there is a general lack of
empathy with cases like Kim's, mostly because people know little about the
condition. Imagine a man that suddenly starts growing breasts or a woman
that starts growing a beard against their will - that is how Kim and people
like her experience puberty.
"They are not freaks, nor do they suffer mental illness. They are
simply trapped in the wrong bodies. That is why it is best to help them as
early as possible and reduce the trauma for them and their families."
The problem that Dr Meyenburg and other psychiatrists faced was
distinguishing a true transsexual personality from a temporary gender
identity crisis. Dr Meyenburg quoted an example of a 15-year-old girl who
wanted to change her sex, but who revealed during counselling that she had
suffered brutal sexual abuse by her father - a case for psychological,
rather than hormonal therapy.
Should Kim change her mind before the surgery, the procedure could be
reversed. Doctors admit that the treatment involves a risk, however, and
that its effects on children as young as Kim are not fully understood.
For legal reasons, the final stage - cosmetic surgery to remove the
male genitalia - cannot take place until Kim is 18. Britain's youngest
transsexual is Angel Paris-Jordan, who was granted an operation on the NHS
at the age of 17.
Unhappy as a boy, Kim became youngest ever transsexual at 12
By Bojan Pancevski in Vienna, Sunday Telegraph
Last Updated: 1:12am GMT 29/01/2007
A boy of 12 is believed to have become the world's youngest sex change
patient after convincing doctors that he wanted to live the rest of his life
as a female.
The boy - originally called Tim, but now known as Kim - has started to
receive hormone treatment, in preparation for the operation that will
eventually complete the sex change.
Tim was diagnosed as a transsexual two years ago, when doctors and
psychiatrists concluded that his claims to be "in the wrong body" were so
deeply felt that he required treatment. The therapy involves artificially
arresting male puberty, with a series of potent hormone injections before
the administration of female hormones to initiate the development of
features such as breasts.
Now aged 14, and officially registered as a female, Kim looks like a
typical girl of her age. She dresses in fashionable clothes, has long blonde
hair and blue eyes and dreams of moving to Paris to become a fashion
designer. Her parents, who initially assumed their son was going through a
temporary phase, eventually grew accustomed to seeing him as a girl.
The family's full identity has not been made public. But Kim's father,
known as Lutz P. - speaking to the German publications Der Spiegel and
Stern - said that as a child, the boy liked to play with Barbie dolls,
enjoyed wearing dresses and, from the age of two, insisted that he was a
girl. "We saw Kim as a girl, but not as a problem. Our life was surprisingly
normal."
Kim reacted badly to the first signs of puberty, he said. "At that
stage we realised that she was terrified of growing facial hair and her
voice breaking."
Kim's parents consulted psychiatrists across Germany. Some condemned
their support of their child's desire to undergo a sex change, or suggested
that Kim be kept under observation in a closed psychiatric ward. But others
agreed that the child should receive therapy, because growing up to be a man
would have damaged her personality.
Dr Bern Meyenburg, the head of a clinic for children and adolescents
with identity disturbances at Frankfurt University, concluded that the child
was serious. He wrote in his diagnosis: "Kim is a mentally well-developed
child who appears happy and balanced. There is no doubt of the determined
wish, that was already detectable since early childhood. It would have been
very wrong to let Kim grow up to be a man. It is rare to have such a
clear-cut case."
Kim is reportedly fully accepted by her fellow school pupils and
teachers. The costs of the procedure are being covered by health insurance,
as the condition qualifies as an illness.
Dr Achim Wuesthof, an endocrinologist specialising in children and
adolescents, who is treating the teenager at a clinic in Hamburg, said the
procedure had been a success so far. Speaking to The Sunday Telegraph, he
said that even though under-16s were not permitted to undergo a sex change
in other countries, he and his colleagues felt that in this case it had been
best to start earlier. He said: "To the best of my knowledge, Kim is the
youngest sex change patient in the world. 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.
"Transsexuals experience the onset of puberty, and the physical
changes it brings, as a serious trauma. But there is a general lack of
empathy with cases like Kim's, mostly because people know little about the
condition. Imagine a man that suddenly starts growing breasts or a woman
that starts growing a beard against their will - that is how Kim and people
like her experience puberty.
"They are not freaks, nor do they suffer mental illness. They are
simply trapped in the wrong bodies. That is why it is best to help them as
early as possible and reduce the trauma for them and their families."
The problem that Dr Meyenburg and other psychiatrists faced was
distinguishing a true transsexual personality from a temporary gender
identity crisis. Dr Meyenburg quoted an example of a 15-year-old girl who
wanted to change her sex, but who revealed during counselling that she had
suffered brutal sexual abuse by her father - a case for psychological,
rather than hormonal therapy.
Should Kim change her mind before the surgery, the procedure could be
reversed. Doctors admit that the treatment involves a risk, however, and
that its effects on children as young as Kim are not fully understood.
For legal reasons, the final stage - cosmetic surgery to remove the
male genitalia - cannot take place until Kim is 18. Britain's youngest
transsexual is Angel Paris-Jordan, who was granted an operation on the NHS
at the age of 17.