Friday, April 16, 2004

Australian 13 year old candidate for Sex Change procedures

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. 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 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."


I remember a guy who was on Oprah many years ago. He convinced his mother to mortgage her house, incurring massive debt, so that he could have a sex change operation to become a woman. When it was all said and down. He then discovered that he really wanted to be a man in the first place, that the sex change was not what he thought it was.

In both cases the mind boggles both at the courts, and at the competency of the therapists.

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