World’s Youngest Transsexual: 16-Year-Old Undergoes Sex Change Operation
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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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