A boy castrated against his will

[Andrew (imported)]

WHY do doctors insist on this sort of thing?



http://home.vicnet.net.au/~aissg/Anthony.htm

[RavenWings (imported)]

Andrew,

They do this because they believe that they know what is best for a person. Often times, they choose the sex of the individual even before a gender can be adiquately assigned. There are a lot of individuals who grow up with severe gender dysphoria because they were assigned a sex by their doctors at birth. What is worse, most of the time when a doctor opperates on someone so young, those opperations don't work properly in adulthood. There are a lot of IS's out there who do not have properly working genitalia simply because their doctors chose to opperate in childhood.

There are moves among the IS community to try and put a stop to this kind of thing. The reasoning is that the child should make up their mind when they are old enough. That surgury should only happen when and if it is absolutely medically necessary- i.e. the genitals are too malformed to allow for proper urination, or that there is a leak out from the urethra (urethral problems and mixed genitalia often go together). But if it is a simple matter of gender, then it should be left up to the child when they are old enough to make that choice. So far, I know of no intersexed individual who has chosen to live as the gender they were assigned in childhood.

I hope that this answers some of what you asked, even though I know it was probably a rhetorical questions. There are so many IS out there who are assigned a gender in infancy, and have a horrendous time changing their gender later in life. I know that none of this is comforting, but it is the reality.

[RavenWings (imported)]

Allison,

It is getting better in a few places. However, even when an intersexed individual is not diagnosed until late in life (klinefelters, true hermaphrodism, etc.) the doctors still believe they know exactly what is best for them. I had a friend a while back who was diagnosed as klinefelters (Genetically XXY) who wanted to be a woman and instead of making her transition easier, the doctors and psychologists made things harder for her. They felt that she should stay a male despite severe gender dysphoria. My friend Kimmie is in a similar boat. She's true hermaph and only diagnosed, and the doctors tried to preasure her into having her female organs removed. In someways what surprized me about this case that Andrew mentioned is that the doctors made this person a girl, so often they end up making them boys instead.

[Paolo]

In someways what surprized me about this case that Andrew mentioned is that the doctors made this person a girl, so often they end up making them boys instead.

From what I've read, generally it's the reverse. Allegedly it's easier to make a girl than it is a boy from an ambiguous child.

Personally, I'm all for leaving all that healthy tissue alone until the child can decide. Unless of course there's a need to do some surgery for the proper passage of urine, etc.

This also brings up the topic again of (much like the thread running on The Cellar) informed consent and the CHILD making the call. And as we've discussed before on the issues of castration, circumcision, and TG Issues - at what age, IF at all in childhood, can the child make the call?

Food for thought.

[RavenWings (imported)]

Paolo,

I know that it is significantly easier to make a girl out of a boy than a boy out of a girl. I am simply stating what I know from what I've learned. However, what I've been able to find out has been very limited. I do know of a case where a 'boy' who should have been a girl was essencially nullified and raised as a boy. It may be that more of the IS's who have come forward are the ones who's doctors chose to make them male rather than female.

As for at what age? I, personally, think that they should not be allowed to make a final choice before at least fifteen. I know from personal experience that gender identification woes can start as early as five, but still, at that age one could make a choice only to find out that it is the wrong one. So, I think that the choice should be no earlier than fifteen, with surgury only occuring at the normal age of physical maturity. At fifteen, they can start taking hormones and antihormone drugs to prevent masculinization/femization. One thing that has been proven is that operating on these children does end up causing perminent damage as many of them are unable to function sexually as adults.

As always, there is a possibility that I might be wrong in some details, but this is what I've learned so far.