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ORIGINAL: beargonewild

I don't know but my instincts are saying the 16 is still too young for gender reassignment surgery. 

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ORIGINAL: LadyEllen

Maybe, but Kim is from Germany (ie no daft place) and the clinicians said they had never come across such a clear cut case.

E

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ORIGINAL: pixidustpet

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ORIGINAL: LadyEllen

Maybe, but Kim is from Germany (ie no daft place) and the clinicians said they had never come across such a clear cut case.

E

the fact that its a clear cut case?  ok, no issue.

*my* issue with it (as a parent) would be that at age 16, you arent finished growing yet.  give the body a chance to fully mature (while taking hormone therapy, fine) and THEN change the genitals.  i'd be worried if the body hadnt fully finished the normal growth spurts and how would the newly shaped genetalia survive the changes.

not to mention....16.  i cant get my own imp that age to clean up his dishes much less try to remember all the things necessary to take care of a post surgical wound that is going to take months of care, dilations, etc.

kitten

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ORIGINAL: pixidustpet

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ORIGINAL: LadyEllen

Maybe, but Kim is from Germany (ie no daft place) and the clinicians said they had never come across such a clear cut case.

E

the fact that its a clear cut case?  ok, no issue.

*my* issue with it (as a parent) would be that at age 16, you arent finished growing yet.  give the body a chance to fully mature (while taking hormone therapy, fine) and THEN change the genitals.  i'd be worried if the body hadnt fully finished the normal growth spurts and how would the newly shaped genetalia survive the changes.

kitten

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ORIGINAL: LaTigresse

As a parent I would be open to learning every single thing I could about it, weighing ALL the risks, pro's and con's. Then I would make an informed decision that I felt was in the best interest of the child long term.

I know very little about the medical aspects, the potential side effects, what the pro's and con's would be at beginning at that age versus older. Those are the things I would weigh against the mental desire and wellbeing.

I've always wanted what was best for my child, for their happiness and well being. Not what I would like, but what they need for themself. What is best for them to have a fullfilling life. Obviously this girl knew and if I was her parent I would hope to god I would be able to support her in the way she needed. Whatever that entailed. And to be able to balance it with helping guide her through the things that would have potential for harm.

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ORIGINAL: angelikaJ
I read an article that suggested the opposite might be true.
That younger bodies handle the changes better.

"Gender reassignment for younger people has been promoted recently by physicians in the Netherlands as being more successful than cases in which the candidate must wait until late in adolescence, when the body’s physical form is harder to reshape and bring into line with a transgendered person’s idea of him or herself."

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ORIGINAL: pixidustpet

LaT, i'm dealing with an imp (the same age as this young woman) who told me in the last few days that he's not only bisexual, but that he's still grieving for his friend, who was killed in a car accident.  leaving his young wife behind.  *headdesk*  cant that boy pick an EASY way of life?

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Now guys - be honest, if you met her would you be more worried she was underage or that she had the same XY chromosomes as you.........!?

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ORIGINAL: CallaFirestormBW

I have to concur with anjelika, Smoke and Arpig. It seems to me that forcing a young person who already is certain of hir orientation to go through puberty and start adult life in a body that just doesn't fit, simply because of an arbitrary age limit seems inappropriate to me, both psychologically and medically.

Young people have better resiliency, they don't have years of hormonal involvement in the body processes to reverse, and they have the opportunity to start their adult life in the gender that they orient as. Kids have surgery all the time... and go through complex medical procedures that require a great deal of diligence. Everything from diabetes to cancer to sports injuries require particular diligent care from the patient, and kids have been dealing with those kinds of situations for years. Both child and parents would have the opportunity to -prepare-, which is an advantage that illness and accident -don't- provide, and yet kids, sometimes with parents' help and sometimes not, IME, still manage to follow medical care, in general, at least as well as their adult counterparts.

In terms of growth, this person had already been on hormones since 12, so the 'normal' hormones of adolescence had already been 'adjusted' since the onset of puberty, so this would, presumably, be a non-issue. I would think that, if gender were going to be re-assigned, that it would be easier if secondary sexual characteristics and growth patterns of the old gender were minimized and the secondary characteristics of the new gender were allowed to predominate. If this meant that a MtF youth would stop growing, instead of spurting up to adult male height, it seems that it would make it -easier-, rather than more difficult, for the MtF to fit into the new gender. In the same way, the changes in bone structure that occur in puberty in a female would have a better chance of leaving the youngster with a more gender-typical shape if hormone changes took place earlier in puberty, so it seems like it would be better to go ahead, provided that evaluations showed clear gender dysphoria.

If one of my 'apples' were in this position, I would hope that I would be a strong enough person and a loving enough parent to help my child and hir doctor(s) figure out the best possible way to get hir through the process. If that meant waiting, then we'd wait and I'd do my best to help hir deal with coming into sexual adulthood in a body that didn't fit... if it meant going ahead with surgery, I would do everything I could to help hir to recover and learn and accomplish the responsibilities of hir new body, but, in my mind, arbitrary age limits should not be the defining factor of when and how to resolve a recognized case of gender dysphoria.

Dame Calla