Children, When Is It Too Young To Transition

Boy trying to find some other news besides the Supreme Court hearing the Grimm’s case is hard, but I found a number of articles on children transitioning.

COMPLETELY INAPPROPRIATE Fury as BBC broadcasts transgender show for children featuring a 11-year-old schoolboy who takes puberty-stunting medicationCampaigners warn show could sow 'seeds of confusion' among children
Politicians slam Beeb and demand show be taken off CBBC website immediately
BBC defends actions saying its content aims to 'reflect true life' of youngsters
The Sun
By Paul Miles
30th October 2016

FURIOUS parents have lashed out at the BBC following a children’s programme which features a schoolboy who takes sex-change drugs.
The organisation has been accused of acting ‘irresponsibly’ over the programme which is available to watch on the CBBC website.

Writing on the mumsnet website, where hundreds of people have vented their anger over the show, one mother said her daughter had become worried after seeing the video. She said the girl, who likes playing

football and wearing boys' clothes, had "asked me, anxiously, if that means she was a boy".

Another posted "Completely inappropriate. Please turn it off. Our kids need protecting from this nonsense."

The programme features on the CBBC website, which is aimed at children as young as six, alongside other shows such as The Next Step, Blue Peter and Danger Mouse.

Just A Girl is the fictional video diary of a child who calls herself ‘Amy’ and dresses as a girl.
[…]
Speaking to the Mail on Sunday family campaigner Norman Wells said: "It is irresponsible of the BBC to introduce impressionable children as young as six to the idea that they can choose to be something other than their biological sex."

So at what age is it appropriate to transition?

Transgender kids coming out younger, experts say after judges ordered 4-year-old to dress like a boy
'No matter how much you try to bury it, suppress it, pretend it’s not there, that's not how it works'
CBC News
Posted: Oct 25, 2016

More young transgender people are coming out, a sign that societal attitudes are becoming more welcoming when it comes to gender issues, according to an Alberta psychiatrist.

Edmonton-based Dr. Lorne Warneke is speaking out after CBC News reported Monday that two judges in southern Alberta had ruled that a child at the centre of a custody battle — who was born male but began identifying as a girl as early as age three — must dress as a boy.

A third judge later overturned that ruling, but Susan Smith — not her real name — is still fighting to regain primary custody from the child's father, who blamed her for the child's gender confusion and anxiety after she vowed to support the child's desire to wear feminine clothing.
[…]
More young transgender people are coming out, a sign that societal attitudes are becoming more welcoming when it comes to gender issues, according to an Alberta psychiatrist.

Edmonton-based Dr. Lorne Warneke is speaking out after CBC News reported Monday that two judges in southern Alberta had ruled that a child at the centre of a custody battle — who was born male but began identifying as a girl as early as age three — must dress as a boy.

The option of not supporting creates a high probability of having grave negative effects on the child compared to allowing the child to explore their gender.

In the Newsweek they write,

HOW DOCTORS ARE WORKING TO MAKE PUBERTY LESS DISTRESSING FOR TRANS KIDS
By Jessica Firger
October 20, 2016

[…]
Jordan is one of approximately 700,000 people in the U.S. who identify as transgender, according to the Williams Institute, an independent organization dedicated to research on sexual orientation and gender identity. Thanks to greater awareness and acceptance, transitioning is now an option at an increasingly younger age. However, the medical interventions used—hormone treatments, drugs to halt puberty—are highly controversial. Critics argue that the treatments are unethical and that young people are not psychologically or emotionally equipped to make such a momentous decision.

Others in the medical community vehemently disagree, and they are working hard to normalize the process by providing these treatments at children’s hospitals
[…]
Seattle Children’s Hospital is the fifth to open a clinic dedicated to the complex needs of this young patient population young patient population. Breland and his colleagues will see children and adolescents ages 8 to 21, offering a high level of care that include specialists in endocrinology and behavioral medicine. At the Seattle clinic, children will also have access to psychological counseling. They may also be provided with pubertal blockers to “buy the family some time” before starting a child on cross-sex hormones at the onset of puberty, says Breland. Though the hospital isn’t doing reconstructive surgery to alter the appearance of genitals or the chest, it does provide guidance and referrals if a patient wants to undergo surgery later, most likely after reaching the age of 18. Experts in this specialized field say it’s clear that transitioning earlier in life can result in fewer medical procedures as an adult. Hormones administered in early puberty can prevent a person’s features from becoming too masculine or feminine, and the process is much less painful than the often drastic and costly cosmetic surgery some patients require to look the way they see themselves. Early transition, some say, also results in improved mental health.
[…]
Most doctors in this growing specialty follow established protocols for early transition. The World Professional Association for Transgender Health, a nonprofit, provides education and training for physicians to learn about caring for this patient population. It also advises the growing number of children’s hospitals offering these services on standards of care for transgender patients.

Other, more mainstream medical organizations have also weighed in. The American Academy of Pediatrics, for example, recommends physicians and adults have the first discussion about transitioning when the child is 12, but the organization believes the process should start at 18.

So when is too young, too young?

Well I think that when a child expresses their dysphoria that is the time to consult professionals. I know children who transitioned socially before kindergarten and not they are about to start junior high school and they are doing very well. And I know other trans children who transitioned in junior high and are now in college with no problems.

What I would like to see is more longitudinal studies, there are some studies under way now but we need more and we need to follow them all through their life to see how they are doing in their sixties.

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This afternoon I am at a house concert with Namoli Brennett down in New London