Transition in childhood

[JesusA (imported)]

Q&A with Norman Spack

A doctor helps children change their gender

By Pagan Kennedy

The Boston Globe

March 30, 2008

CHILDREN HAVE CUT themselves. In some cases, 9- or 10-year-old kids have staged suicide attempts. The little boys sob unless they're allowed to wear dresses. The girls want to be called Luke, Ted, or James.

Their parents, desperate to know what is wrong, go online and type "gender disorder."

And what they find is that, even now, decades after doctors performed the first sex changes in America, there's little help for transgender children.

Even the care of transgender adults remains a medical backwater in the United States; in fact, we do not even know how many people in this country have gone through sex changes, because doctors simply did not bother to keep track of patients. Until recently, children with cross-gender feelings rarely received modern medical care - and certainly not hormone shots. After all, who would allow a child to redesign his or her body?

But in the past few years, some doctors have come to believe that kids should be allowed to have some control over how they grow up. Dr. Norman Spack, 64, argues that transgender kids tend to be much happier - and less likely to harm themselves - when they're able to live in their preferred gender role.

Last year, the pediatric endocrinologist started a new clinic at Children's Hospital Boston; it is one of a few in the world to give children treatments that change their bodies. Working on a model borrowed from Dutch researchers, Spack uses drugs to delay the first stirrings of youngsters' puberty, granting them a few more years before they develop bodies that are decidedly male or female. The effects of these puberty-blocking drugs are reversible; that is, patients can later change their minds. Unfortunately, this is not the case with hormones. Therefore, Spack prescribes estrogen and testosterone to only a few teenagers - after months of consultation with the patient, his or her caregivers, and psychiatrists. When kids take this step, they are rewriting their own future: The hormones have a powerful, pervasive effect, changing their height, breast development, and the pitch of their voices.

IDEAS: When are children old enough to declare what gender they will be?

SPACK: All I know is that when I see preadolescents, they have been dressing in the underwear of the other sex for years. These kids are almost certainly transgendered. They're a unique population of patients. By the time a kid comes in to see me, both parents have agreed that the child is in danger and needs some form of intervention. And that has led to heavy-duty counseling for the child and parents. Therefore I see young people and families who have been evaluated by skilled professionals.

IDEAS: At what age do you give kids drugs to delay puberty?

SPACK: The puberty-blocking drugs work best at the beginning of the pubital process, typically age 10 to 12 for a girl and 12 to 14 for a boy. Stopping puberty is, in itself, a diagnostic test. If a girl starts to experience breast budding and feels like cutting herself, then she's probably transgendered. If she feels immediate relief on the [puberty-blocking] drugs, that confirms the diagnosis.

IDEAS: So the aim of your treatment is to protect children from harming themselves?

SPACK: Transgendered kids have a high level of suicide attempts. Of the patients who have fled England to see me, three out of the four have made very serious suicide attempts. And I've never seen any patient make [an attempt] after they've started hormonal treatment.

IDEAS: At what age should children be allowed to take hormones, like estrogen and testosterone, that will forever change the way their bodies develop?

SPACK: Well, the Dutch would say 16. But I think more flexible guidelines will be coming out. For some kids, 16 might be appropriate. For others {hellip} you lose opportunities if you wait. [One of my patients, a] transgendered girl from the UK, was destined to be a 6-foot-4 male. With treatment, she's going to end up 5-foot-10.

IDEAS: What are the most difficult ethical issues you face?

SPACK: The biggest challenge is the issue of fertility. When young people halt their puberty before their bodies have developed, and then take cross-hormones for a few years, they'll probably be infertile. You have to explain to the patients that if they go ahead, they may not be able to have children. When you're talking to a 12-year-old, that's a heavy-duty conversation. Does a kid that age really think about fertility? But if you don't start treatment, they will always have trouble fitting in. And my patients always remind me that what's most important to them is their identity.

IDEAS: Several years ago, you became an evangelist for transgender kids at Children's Hospital. How did you become so committed to this issue?

SPACK: Well, let's start with 1974: I'm working at Bridge Over Troubled Waters as a volunteer. I see lots of transgendered kids. They were runaways, in bad shape. Then years later, in 1985, I'm working in adolescent medicine. Someone sends me a transgendered Harvard graduate who presented himself as a male. He introduced me to his friends and support groups. And then I began working with transgendered people in their 20s. The people in their 20s were socially in good shape. But they were having trouble getting their physique to conform to their identity. I knew the twenty-somethings could have better chances of passing if they were treated earlier.

IDEAS: And how did you make the case for this specialized clinic at Children's Hospital?

SPACK: In the last five years, I've been getting more and more referrals, parents with gender-variant kids. The parents heard about me through Internet support groups. So, I began to bring my transgendered patients and their parents - kids as young as 9 - to a large number of clinical conferences in various departments at Children's Hospital. That way, my colleagues could learn about this population. My philosophy is, "Who am I to say what it's like to be transgendered when I have people who are living with it every day?" These kids won over the hospital, one department at a time.

IDEAS: You're involved with a number of Jewish philanthropic groups. How does your faith inform your work with gender-variant children?

SPACK: My own rabbi said it best: The transgendered are also created b'tzelem Elohim, in the image of God.

Pagan Kennedy is the author of nine books, most recently "The First Man-Made Man." She can be reached through her website, pagankennedy.net.

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas ... ?page=full

© Copyright 2008 Globe Newspaper Company.

[tugon (imported)]

Slowly, slowly the medical community is getting on the right track.

[IbPervert (imported)]

Recently in Oxnard, Calfirornia a 15 year old transgender named Larry King was killed by a fellow classmate who was a 14 yr old boy. Article on AP news site (http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jdgd ... AD8VMJGR80)

From K through 10th grade i was abused and picked on for being gay, and it makes me wonder because I did not know tell I was out of high school. So yes much still needs to be done! A friend of mine moved to a small towne near Tampa, Fl and he said it is very dangerous hear for people to find out your gay! Even his boss at work made fun of gays right in front of him....though he places it very straight and no one knows he is gay.

[Tracy1980 (imported)]

It is interesting how in the article about Larry King, it does not really mention the likely possibility that Larry was transgender. Yes, his sexual preference was males, but coming to school in high heels and makeup suggests that he moreso maybe identified with being of the female gender. If this is so, Larry would be considered a heterosexual female rather than a gay male. If the school had delved into this more and saw this, he may have been safer in the girl's bathrooms and social groups. It was inevitable that something like this was going to happen when a boy is going into boy's restrooms with high heels and makeup.

[IbPervert (imported)]

I have seen other articled about the incident I just could not find them that quickly

[mrt (imported)]

As I learn more about this I find my attitude / opinions changing. If we accept that people truly know at a very early age that they are born with the wrong "equipment" then it only makes sense to treat them when doing so has the best chance of making gender changes that will "work" most properly.

On the con side the idea that its possible to delay the "decision" is I think the main issue with this. Does for example shutting down androgens in a 12 year old boy allow him to be fully "male" if he decided at age 18 that it was a mistake? And also for a young girl making the same type of decision?

I don't know? While I think it doubtful that this will happen very often I think a doctor will be pondering that and the potential lawsuits if that boy claims he is "damaged" for life. Do we really know that long term chemical castration damages the testes ability to make hormones and sperm? I mean is there a true medical study on reversability?

I was trying to find a good tutorial for where to inject my Testosterone and looked up the topic on Youtube. I have to say I'm impressed with the changes these young people have shown as they transition female to male. Its rather staggering how they morph based on an occasional hypodermic of male hormones!

I'm also quite impressed that they are upfront and open about it. They see it for what it is. A simple medical condition which I hope in the future all people (not just the patients) will "get" so that we don't have to hear about people being murdered in bathrooms and other insane garbage.

[kristoff]

It is interesting how in the article about Larry King, it does not really mention the likely possibility that Larry was transgender. Yes, his sexual preference was males, but coming to school in high heels and makeup suggests that he moreso maybe identified with being of the female gender. If this is so, Larry would be considered a heterosexual female rather than a gay male. If the school had delved into this more and saw this, he may have been safer in the girl's bathrooms and social groups. It was inevitable that something like this was going to happen when a boy is going into boy's restrooms with high heels and makeup.

Just because a male likes to wear high heels and make up does not automatically make them transgendered. That is just a biased assumption many people often mistakenly make. I know an awful lot of gay men (and some straight) who love a touch of makeup and some heels, etc. They would all cringe at the idea of losing their precious.

[plix (imported)]

Just because a male likes to wear high heels and make up does not automatically make them transgendered. That is just a biased assumption many people often mistakenly make. I know an awful lot of gay men (and some straight) who love a touch of makeup and some heels, etc. They would all cringe at the idea of losing their precious.

I agree. I have wanted to wear certain feminine jewelry pieces that I have seen, yet I don't think of identifying as female at all. I simply want to be a male who enjoys and is allowed to wear these pieces. I refrain, however, because I am too afraid to violate gender boundaries. There are also certain less than masculine clothing articles I have wished I could wear, especially when it comes to color. In Paris I even wished I could have a white umbrella I liked. But apparently men aren't allowed to even have white umbrellas.

[IbPervert (imported)]

I have read that he was shot in the back of the head going into a Computer class. Also there have been reports that 14 yr old Larry King might have made a pass at the other boy (which is not an excuse). Larry King was from a dysfunctional family. At that age he most likely did not even fully know what he was, but knew he liked womens clothes.

[kristoff]

I have read that he was shot in the back of the head going into a Computer class. Also there have been reports that 14 yr old Larry King might have made a pass at the other boy (which is not an excuse). Larry King was from a dysfunctional family. At that age he most likely did not even fully know what he was, but knew he liked womens clothes.

Another assumption. MANY kids at 14 know very well if they are gay or not. Most gay folks I've talked to over the years knew damned well long before then - whether they knew the words or not, they knew something was not the same as others. This kid, to all appearances reported, knew very well who he was. Hell, I knew by the time I was 5 YO.