Gender Confusion Distresses Teens

Family Health
Gender Confusion Distresses Teens
By
Aug 21, 2006, 07:00

... Rob never felt like he fit in. The 16-year-old high school student didn’t like “masculine” interests like sports, cars or gaming like the rest of the boys. He felt more comfortable around girls. And he knew it sounded strange, but he felt like he should be a girl.

That is how I felt.

This cycle of isolation and experimentation may result in troubling health and mental health consequences. Teens with gender identity disorder (GID) feel or believe like they should be the opposite sex of what they are. A biological girl feels like she should be a boy. A biological boy feels like he is a girl. That disconnect between brain and body can be troubling to teens already struggling with their identity.

GLBT youths have one of the highest suicide rates of any other group of teens.

While the condition is rare--an estimated one in 35,000 males and one in 100,000 females have gender identity disorder—Dr. O’Malley has treated a number of teens with GID during his more than 20 years at The Menninger Clinic.

I think those numbers are out dated, they are based on studies conducted in the seventies. I think they are more like 1 in 2,500 for both MtF’s and FtM’s based on the number of surgeries done in the U.S. and on surveys done in Sweden.