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 12-Year Old Begins Sex Change Therapy
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff
Posted: January 29, 2007 - 3:00 pm ET
(Vienna) A twelve year old German is believed
to be the youngest person in the world to start a sex-change procedure.
Born biologically male and named Tim by her
parents, the child from birth rejected male identifiers, adopted the name Kim,
and at the age of 12 was diagnosed officially as transsexual.
Following physical and psychological examinations
doctors determined it would be in Kim's best interests to immediately begin
gender reassignment.
Her birth records have been changed to reflect
her correct sex and name and doctors started administering hormone treatments.
That was two years ago, although media reports in
Europe are just reporting her story.
In an interview with the the German news
magazines Stern and Der Spiegel, Kim's father, identified only as Lutz P said
that while they were at first concerned the grew to see their child as a girl.
"We saw Kim
as a girl, but not as a problem. Our life was surprisingly normal," he
said.
But he said that when Kim began to show the first signs of
puberty she became depressed.
"At that stage
we realized that she was terrified of growing facial hair and her voice
breaking."
While some doctors wanted to wait until she was
older before starting sex reassignment others said it should commence
immediately because growing up
to be a man could permanently damage her emotionally.
"Kim
is a mentally well-developed child who appears happy and balanced," Dr Bern
Meyenburg who studies transsexuality in teens at Frankfurt University, wrote in his
diagnosis.
"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."
©365Gay.com 2007
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