A judge has provoked controversy in Australia by ruling that a 12-year-old girl could begin the first phase of a sex change.
The unnamed girl has begun hormone treatment to block puberty after a judge accepted an application from her mother for her to begin to reassign her gender.
A family court judgment said it was important to act quickly to prevent the onset of puberty as the girl dreaded the prospect of menstruation and developing breasts, and had threatened self-harm.
Surgery to remove her womb and ovaries or construct a penis however cannot be performed before the age of 18.
It’s reported that the girl had thought of herself as a boy since the age of four. Several medical experts, including a psychiatrist, backed her application for a sex change.
The child’s father however opposed the decision, in part because of his daughter’s young age. [Telegraph]
This reminds me of a friend who suffered from the dilemma when he (now a she) was in high school… besides her physical appearance, she looked nothing like a boy at all. Her oddity was constantly teased by her peers, and the guys liked to take off her cloths to ‘prove’ that she was a boy.
She is now transgendered into a woman, but if she have had changed her sex earlier… she could have avoid the tortures and humiliations during high school.
Same concern applies to this Australian girl too, but on the other hand I also share her father’s concern about making the important decision at such young age. It’s a tough call to make, really… and I hope they made the right one.