Transgender kids article in today's Guardian

[TerraNovice]

Did anyone see this article about Louis Theroux's documentary that airs tonight? www.theguardian.com/society/2015/apr/05/transgender-kids-children-change-sex-families

Admittedly I have some issues with it. Is it really good to give kids hormone blockers from childhood? And I do find one of the mothers' statement problematic where she says she felt like she had a little girl because her son liked her shoes and "feminine" things and wasn't interested if you put a truck in front of him. I find these ideas of gender really reductive. A child who is uninterested in traditional masculine or feminine toys etc may not necessarily be transgender, they could be an effeminate boy or a butch girl. Why pump them full of hormones when they are very little?

Any thoughts?

Dysmorphia & dysphoria are 2 very different things, one flew and treated differently. I am sorry you have had such a crap time..

Trans teens have a very high suicide rate especially if left to struggle after familial rejection. Early intervention, counselling and psychological support are vital to succesful outcomes, & with the increase in availability of better transgender support services & early referral long term stats are improving thankfully. It's getting late so haven't got the numbers to hand but will find tomorrow after work.

Cote precocious puberty does call for early blockers in some cases & obviously not o be undertaken lightly, but that is from a gynae point of view, & certainly their focus is on future fertility.

With the specialsed experienced support like DS is getting at the gender clinic for dysphoria, they would be looking at the whole picture, and balancing the suspected side effects ( as yet unproven I believe but always glad to be proven wrong!) with the proven benefits psychologically. As I said upthread , DS is too established in puberty to start now but were he at the pre pubertal stage with these same issues I would be happy to consider it, as I would any therapy, most of which have risks.

Isn't there a middle ground between rejecting your child and accepting they are trans?

Not if you want the best for them Ehric, no.

The best for children is to have a lifetime of medical interference with unknown outcomes because they struggle to accept who they are?

Flora, THEY know who they are, but it is often different to how there bodies are, and it is not medical interference it is much welcomed support, understanding and if absolutely the right thing for THAT child then medical intervention.

As you wouldn't even put your daughter on the pill, I suppose you can't get your head round that?

Tibbysmum DS has been following these threads & thinks you're ace BTW!!

sorry as you were......

"THEY know who they are, but it is often different to how there bodies are"

What seems to be the difference between a person and his body?

Floundering there is a history of early death from heart disease and stroke in the women of my family so I will advise my daughter to be careful about hormonal interventions. I certainly won't "put" her on the pill. Since you seem to think this is a bad thing, I don't suppose we'll see eye to eye on whether young people should be encouraged to medicate healthy bodies to fit into society.

Cote he feels he is not female, the gender assigned to him at birth , he feels, behaves,thinks,responds as a boy/man. This caused him to become dysmorphic as his female body became more developed. To the point of wanting to self harm so great was his unease with his female body. It was hard for me to grasp at first but when I saw how unhappy he was, and how much more relaxed he was even after our first family counselling session, just to be given the chance to explore the possibilities, and to be taken seriously I soon rsalised this was not "just a phase"

Flora with tbat family history then yes she would be wise to be cautious. You would weigh up the previous history, the risks of the pill vs the risks of her getting pregnant, also risky in some sorts of heart disease, & I would applaud that.

Therefore please do not tell me what is best for my child, and keep harping on about early medicalisation of children, when I have said more than once it is a very long process BEFORE it gets to that stage.

Many people might have come on to these threads seeing the OP , seeking advice and comfort, as I did in the early days, and seen nothing but vitriol and judgemental sweeping statements in between some genuine discussion.

I'm going to call it anight now, as it is apparent you are determined to change my opinion, but it is not just my opinion, it is a real life issue & you and others being so critical would do well to remember the real people behind these stories before you post.

, he feels, behaves,thinks,responds as a boy/man

Floundering, don't take this the wrong way- but what do you and he mean by this? This is the part I don't understand.

StillLost - it seems the only people who will understand are those who want to, or those who live with (or are) Trans people.
Picking apart someone's language when they have tried to explain something perfectly well is not helpful.

Floundering You would weigh up the previous history, the risks of the pill vs the risks of her getting pregnant Interesting you didn't mention other forms of contraception.

If your child is in psychological distress, it's natural to want to help them. Lots of parents find themselves in that situation and have to make decisions between various bad options to do what they think is best for their children.

However, when you talk about female being the "gender assigned to him at birth" this is not true and you are making statements about all women. If you said you decided to acknowledge your child's feelings of anorexia because you were concerned about a suicide risk that would be one thing but then to say that anyone over six stone is fat would be quite another.

"feels, behaves, thinks responds as a boy/man" includes massive assumptions about how men feel etc. and how women feel etc. which are largely derived from sexist notions about biological essentialism, female/male brain etc. that affect us all.

Sorry but the 'thinks, feels, behaves as a boy /man' concept is highly problematic. It is used to shut down discussion because it's essentially unproveable but equally it makes massive assumptions about sex and gender that are simply not fact.

I get the impression feminists don't like transgenders very much?

That depends meddaio, if you are stuck in some ancient second wave terf ideology of gender which denies Trans peoples actual experience, or not.

"Transgenders"?

Feminists are TERFs as well as SWERFs are they not

some are, some aren't meddaio.

Meddaio can confirm that the trans notion of gender fits into MRA ideology.

Just so you know, you're not going to be banned for being hard of thinking. That's not contrary to the rules.

Feminist.