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A German 16-year-old named Kim (born Tim) has become the youngest person to undergo a sex change operation.
Paid for by the German health service, psychologists stated he/she was “without doubt a girl in a boy’s body“. Since the age of 12, Kim has been undergoing hormone therapy.
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Dr Bernd Meyenburg, head of the Psychiatric Special Outpatient Clinic for Children and Adolescents with Identity Disorders at the University of Frankfurt Hospital explained
Very few youth psychiatrists have any experience with transsexual developments…I was always against such operations on children so young but after seeing how happy one of my patients was and how well adjusted after returning from having the operation abroad while still a teenager – I realised that in some cases it is the right decision…Kim is such a case – she always knew what she wanted.
I am not sure how I feel about this news. On one hand, I want to respect Kim and her decision. I am an open-minded person, at least I like to think I am. On the other hand, 16-years-old is awful young to be making life changing decisions. I can’t even remember what I wanted at 16, other than to drive a car and hang out with my friends while listening to music. I am not for elective, cosmetic surgery, but some may argue this is not cosmetic for Kim. I believe we should accept our natural bodies.
As a parent, I don’t know how I would react if my child wanted such a surgery. Kim’s father explains his feelings:
I suppose it took me longer than my wife to accept it, but Kim is a very persuasive girl, she knows what she wants and how to get it. I am very proud of what she has achieved, how she has managed to get there and how she sticks to her dreams no matter how hard and painful they are to follow.
One thing I do know, I can’t help but feel like I should move to Germany. My son is considered “uninsurable” because he has a congenital heart defect, and our government offers no support because we are not a low income family, yet Germany pays for a teenager’s sex change! I wish Kim and her family well, and I try to have compassion for her gender issues.
Photo: EUROPICS
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I agree that a teenager is a bit young to make major decisions, but in this case, I agree that she could decide this on her own. From what I have seen and read – people that have sex changes do it because they have felt that they were in the wrong body for THEIR WHOLE LIVES. I know we consider 16 to be young, but imagine spending 16 years (ok, maybe a bit less) feeling like you were in the wrong body. Many kids can feel this way before they can put it into words.
So, I think that if a teen has it together enough and is confident enough to have major change, she should do it – in the long run it will probably make life MUCH easier for her then doing it when she was in her 20’s or 30’s or later.
I am a TS. Just about every TS that I know has known at around three years old. Getting hormone treatment as young as possible is key to the treatment of this condition. Once puberty is allowed to damage your body it is much harder to deal with. If you have this condition you would know that surgery is not for cosmetic reasons. It is the last step in a treatment that is the only one that is known to work. It would be like saying treatment to fix a heart defect is optional.
I have to disagree with you on one point – the most disturbing thing I find in this whole article is that the surgery was paid for by the government. I am not a fan of socialist economic policy, and the thought that ordinary citizen’s tax money was going to pay for a 16 year old’s sex change operation makes me physically ill. It seems to me more like theft than anything else and it disgusts me.
Why is it that we are so quick to criticize that about which we have little or no knowledge? And why is is so important for us to get people to do what WE think is right for them rather than listen to them and help them do what they KNOW is right for them?
If you think 16 tear old transsexuals don’t know they were born in the wrong body then you’ve never spent any time listening to them. Transsexuals know when they are as young as two. When you were 16 did you know you were happy with your gender? If someone suggested to you to change your gender would you have thought about it for more than a split second?
We preach “March to the tune of a different drummer”, “Be yourself”, Be an individual” but then say “As long as you walk, talk, dress and act like all the other boys/girls”. No wonder so many kids are confused.
Kim knew what she wanted. Open minded people listened to her. They didn’t try to stuff her real self into a box because she was different. We are all unique. We should be encouraging that, not trying to make everyone conform to our rules.
I’d like to point out that there is no such thing as the German health service. Other than many European countries, Germany does not have a national health service, but a system of public and private insurance companies. A typical employee and his or her family would be insured via some public insurance company. I wasn’t able to find more information on the German part of the internet on who paid for Kim’s surgery, but I highly doubt it was the government. It seems likely to me that either her insurance company was forced by some regulation to pay or that the hospital who performed the operation volunteered to pay. If I can find out more, I’ll post again.
Sex Reassignment Surgery (SRS) is funded in the UK as well. Not sure what the youngest is, but many 18-25 year old are successful each year. I am told there are over 800 NHS funded SRS ops and over 600 private paid for operations each year in the UK.
Then there are the girls who opt for some of the best surgeons in this specility and go to Thailand.
Canada also funds SRS.
It is a serious condition. You have one of two choices. Pay a several thousand in surgical fees after 2 years of therapy, or pay for 50 years of depression therapy, thousands a year in anti depressant drugs. Tens of thousand a year in suicide prevention.
It’s a cheap cost to the public purse to take a physiological issue, re-balance it and put a very healthy and productive person back into the community. One who desperately wants a career, to be successful, to marry a long term loving partner.
M2F have the better surgical options. But remember too there are an EQUAL number of F2M transsexuals who you couldn’t even identify as once having a female body, unless you get into their pants!
I’d rather see funding put into counseling and SRS than into funding politician Christmas parties and long lunches.
Amber, People like you who care only for themselves disgust me. Ordinary Citizens Money is used very often in Germany to pay when something happens to someone who cannot economically handle the problem himself, for example when you loose your job, you get money from the state, until you find a new one (Terms and conditions apply). When you get sick, the Krankenkasse pays your medical bills. That is called solidarity. In Germany we have Soziale Marktwirtschaft. You can read more about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_market_economy
I heard that she will be on “America’s Next Top Model”.
Elective procedures should be paid for by the patient NOT the insurer, whether they’re in vitro fertilization, LASIK, or a sex change operation. Why should my premiums (or tax money) go to pay for someone to have a procedure that’s not medically necessary? If Kim/Tim wants to get a sex change let her/his family foot the bill for it…
Why do you find it so hard to give a little so that others can be free to pursue happiness…this cost is comparatively small compared to many other things government does.
You may think that this is an elective surgery, but I consider this as anything but. If I had the opportunity to be myself at 12 I would have. I had to deal with parents and family that still don’t understand what I have gone through. I’m 27 and have just started hormone therapy, and I haven’t done it soon enough. “Harry Benjamin Syndrome” is very real, whether or not you are aware of the complexities of humanity. Go take a health class or at least Google/Wikipedia something before you make a rash reaction to something.
Thank you for posting this article.It raises awareness among people who do not know about this issue, and lets people who need help know that there are safe and successful options available at earlier developmental stages.
So one interesting question that i have about this post, is WHY IS THIS ON ECO-CHILD’SPLAY? Does this have anything to do with green? Why isn’t anyone covering that girl who had octuplets and what that means to planetary overpopulation? Is this sex change really news to greenies?
Elisa, Thanks for asking why this is on ECP. I thought that the conversation about altering our natural bodies would be interesting. As a green parent, I avoid western medicine as much as possible and use alternative therapies, except where it is necessary. I wanted to contemplate how I would respond as a green parent to my child if they were transsexual. Perhaps I didn’t achieve this in the post.
We have written a couple of posts on the octuplets:
http://ecochildsplay.com/search/?q=octuplets
I know this is off topic, but I would just like to point out that being a capitalist doesn’t mean I care only about myself. It just means that I believe in PRIVATE charity, not public forced charity. I call it “government mandated compassion,” which is hypocritical as well as oxymoronic. I don’t think the government has the right to tell me what to do with my money. If I want to give it away to a charity, I should get to choose that charity. The fact that any government thinks it has the right to take money from people who earned it to give it to people who didn’t makes me sick. Private fundraising, private charities, private insurance etc has always worked better than socialistic policies. @heinrich, I’m sorry you are so convinced of your own moral superiority. It’s hindering your ability to see the world for what it really is – a GOOD place with GOOD people who would do a lot MORE good if their ability to do good wasn’t hindered by legalized theft and swindling.
Also, I would like to point out that I don’t have a problem with a 16 year old having a sex change operation. I think 16 IS mature enough to make that kind of decision – especially if they’ve felt “trapped” for years – and I think it would be easier at 16 than 25 to learn to live with it, make friends, etc. I just don’t think I should have to pay for it.
I think I would feel strange say having sex with a “woman” who used to be a “man” but this person in the picture is actually attractive…. am I gay?
Gosh, I’m fed up with this bigotry.
Transsexuality IS a medical condition. If not treated those people will develop serious mental issues and have often commited suicide.
It’s not a B-cup girl who just wants to have bigger boops, it is a girl being born into the wrong body.
Tell you what?
I’m one of those people who pay for German health insurance and I’m very happy if it is spend on people like Kim, giving her the possibility to live a happy life.
Much more than paying for 50 years of “Tim’s” mental therapy.
And for the last time: it is NOT government/state money.
But I think you guys just can’t stand the thought of people being real generous and helpful.
I wish that the resources that are available now where in place when I was Kim’s age. Try growing up in a Military family, on a military base, in a Military town and knowing that you were supposed to have been born female. The term “sex change” is incorrect, MtF’s were born with a female pattern brain or in the case of FtM’s a male pattern brain and to have a sex change would mean rewiring the brain, something that is currently impossible. SRS means correcting the birth defects that we were born with. Trans people are not mentally ill, though our condition is listed in the DSM-IV. MtF’S and FtM’S know who they really are, we don’t need aversion therapy, electroshock therapy, or a shrink messing around in our heads. what we require is a medical system sympathic to our needs so we can get on with our lives. Like Brie in the movie TransAmerica said to her doctor “Its amazing how a simple operation can cure a mental disease”.
Roberta Jane
Private charities sounds like a decent idea. But I suspect that unexpected situations pop up.
Sixteen is way too young, speaking of which, generally people who are 21 still don’t know what they want in life.
sex reassignment surgery is one of the dangerous procedures. anything can happen to those who pursue to have that kind of surgery. The risk of infection is one of them.
Also that little part would be an open wound that would need constant maintenance.
Something doesn’t smell right.
I am absolutely happy for her and I’m fine with the state paying for this. I know for a fact this is a medical condition. goverments squander tons of money on wars, weapons, useless research, intelligence, bailouts, worthless edifices, and many many things that us taxpayers are not so happy about.
kim youngest transexaul is me tom fisco plaese your love attrack so i just want to inform you.one love.
Our bodies, but you pay for it.
And we can’t join in the debate why?
Yeah she’s hot, so what?
I have a few thoughts on this. I think it’s revolting (being a fifteen year old girl) that someone wants to change their sex, but if they were unhappy as they were born then they should change ti if they feel that way!
I’m not going to say I’m not disgusted – Ia m, but Kim deserves happiness, too.
No matter how many operations HE has HE will always be a HE. We can say legally He is a she, but the Genetics will never change. He can talk like a girl, walk like a girl, act like a girl and look like a girl, but Tim, will always be Tim. The ramifications of his mental state, being a “Girl” in a “Boy’s” can not be proven through scientific means. This is the opinion of others.
Tim should have the right to call himself what he wants, and when he is an Adult should of had the right to do what he wanted to his body, but to placate to the some kind of notion that Tim is now a “She” when the pure Genetics behind he says the opposite, is childish.
We should be able to live in the world were people can do what they want to themselves at an age of adulthood and not foolishly lie over what he is just to make them feel better. “Kim” as he calls himself is a he, there is nothing he can do to change this. IF he wants to look like a she that is fine, but he was born a he and die one… end of story.
i don’t get it why would u want to be a girl if u are a guy and the same for a girl i think it is just weird but that is just me but people can do what people want to do
To be honest I feel really bad those individuals who are transsexuals. I am a christian and because of my beliefs I think that homosexuality is an abomination, but from my secular perspective I don’t think people choose to either be a transsexual or homosexual. Do you honestly think these kind of people choose to be picked up, discriminated against, or beaten up (if not killed) for being who they are. I am probably one of the few sane people in this world who would see no problem dating transsexuals. Remember people fall in love with the person’s spirit, not what is between the legs. I find this teenager’s courage an inspiration. I wish her luck. God Bless everyone.
how weird!!
perfect thread material.
well iam glad that the Drs are helping those who are ready for there change in life Kim you are a sweet girl and don’t let any one tell you differnt wish i was that young when i came out
Whoever anonymous is; go screw yourself, you have no clue. I call you out on being the waste of bigoted human flesh you are. You dont know Kim, you dont know me, and you dont know what REALLY goes on in a DNA strand. Just recently they found another gene that could turn womens ovaries into testes! If you cant look Kim right in the eye and see she is a woman you are BLIND. How would you like to look like that and have a tumor in between your legs? You people who dont understand need to step back and re-evaluate yourself. You cant understand because you arent trans/intersex or whatever. If I had been able to do this at 8 I would have. as it were, I waited until 29 only because my family was bigoted and would not have helped me, and I didnt get the money until then. No one, no one has any clue about my past from looking at me, and if I feel like, talk like, have sex like, LOOK like, and am treated like a woman by the world, then who the hell are you to say I am not one? Do you know what Id pay to have my own uterus and be able to have one child? If you are a woman who has had a hysterectomy or endometriosis you MIGHT begin to understand. Otherwise, please go research things before you spout BS.
the waste of bigoted human flesh you are. You dont know Kim, you dont know me, and you dont know what REALLY goes on in a DNA strand. Just recently they found another gene that could turn womens ovaries into testes! If you cant look Kim right in the eye and see she is a woman you are BLIND. How would you like to look like that and have a tumor in between your legs? You people who dont understand need to step back and re-evaluate yourself. You cant understand because you arent trans/intersex or whatever. If I had been able to do this at 8 I would have. as it were, I waited until 29 only because my family was bigoted and would not have helped me, and I didnt get the money until then. No one, no one has any clue about my past from looking at me, and if I feel like, talk like, have sex like, LOOK like, and am treated like a woman by the world, th
well at the moment i think first we should ask our self that why do people go for this sex change