Global Breaking News - Wednesday, May 15, 2024

Is There a Right Age to Change One’s Sex?
As transgender Americans continue their quest for equality, the number of teenagers going through gender reassignment is growing. While there are no laws regarding the age a person must be to receive sex-change hormones or surgery, insurers have generally refused to cover minors even though some doctors see benefits in treating children before they hit puberty. How old should a person be before they have gender reassignment treatment or surgery?
* transgender = 성전환의, 트랜스젠더의/ equality = 평등, 균등/ gender reassignment = (수술에 의한) 성 전환/ insurer = 보험회사(업자)/ puberty = 사춘기  

 성 전환 치료 또는 수술을 받기 전 (최소) 몇 살이 되어야 하나요?

1. Transitioning Is for Those Who Can Vote and Drink
The promotion of transitioning for children is being used by the adult trans community – and many of them are my friends – as a tool for transgender social acceptance.

2. Surgery at 17 May Avoid Serious Problems Later
Severe psychological trouble can follow such operations, but research and experience show that early treatment benefits patients.

3. A Decision That Can’t Be Determined by Age
To me, this question is the same as asking: How old must one be to have their first regret?

4. Few Adolescents Are Capable of Deciding to Have the Surgery
It would be inadvisable for parents to consent to gender transforming surgery a child wants, if the child does not have full decision making capacity.

Sample Essay

Transgender Surgery at 17 May Avoid Serious Problems Later

I think most specialists agree that transgenderism is primarily a neurological, not a psychological disorder, even if we don’t understand its cause. So we shouldn’t blame what’s commonly called sex reassignment surgery for patients’ psychological problems.

One widely cited Swedish study found that those who have had such surgery are far more likely to commit suicide than people in the general population. Research by the Dutch endocrinologist Dr. Louis Gooren -- one of the first to treat transgender youths -- and others, also found that suicide was particularly high among male-to-female transsexuals. But he has said that more recent experience with patients who complete their treatment before the age of 20 shows they do remarkably better.

So while this shows that surgery alone cannot make people pass easily into society, I believe it also demonstrates the devastating consequences of not treating this condition early.

A Dutch study of the first 55 young men and women who were given hormones to block puberty at its onset, cross-sex steroids at age 15 to 16, and had surgery at 18, found that none of them harmed themselves or considered suicide. At age 20 to 22 the treated group’s psychosocial functioning was as good or better than a control group of same-age nontransgender Dutch young people.

Patients have also become far more satisfied with their surgeries as operating microscopes have helped surgeons save nerves. Consequently, all 12 of my patients who have had a feminizing genitoplasty at ages 18 to 24 were pleased with their sexual function and sensation within four months. The patients I’ve treated who were over 45 were not always so fortunate.

Genetic boys could have surgery at 17, especially if they are going to college, since the months of necessary post-operative care are best done at home. If genetic girls who identify as male have very large breasts, mastectomies could even be done at 14.

Criticism of us for operating on children ignores the growing benefits of such surgery for transgender adolescents and young adults at over 40 programs throughout North America.