What Does A Child Know?

I was talking to someone recently.  The person was excited and wanted to share with me that a child close to them – a young child – had recently started wanting to dress against the norms of their birth-assigned gender.  The child took things a step further in that they expressed a desire to be identified by a name associated with the gender they were not assigned at birth.  As they related this to me, they shared a video on their phone of the child laughing and playing in clothes that were traditionally associated with the gender opposite the one the child was assigned at birth.  The child looked completely comfortable and happy.

The adult asked a number of questions, as any person who cared for this child might be expected to do.  Specialists were being sought out, but since this person knows me – and knows about me – they decided to ask my thoughts, too.

Their questions boiled down to this: Is it possible, if the child was allowed to live as they chose, took sex-hormone suppressors in puberty, and so on,  what would be the likelihood that they might change their minds latter on?  If they did change their minds later on, what could they do about it?

Like most medical conditions that have the ability to seriously impede a child’s quality of life if left untreated, gender dysphoria is best treated if it is identified as early as possible.  How do you identify it?  I think the best way to do it would be to listen to the child.

So, a child gives indications to you that they suffer from gender dysphoria.  You, as a responsible adult who cares for the child, go to a doctor as puberty approaches, and the doctor prescribes medicines to block the effects of the sex-hormones the body would normally produce.  If, at some point the child changed their minds and wanted to live as the gender they were assigned at birth, they’d just have to stop taking the hormone suppressors.  Their bodies would develop as they would have without the suppressors.

Note that if a child has stopped growing (as most people do between the ages of 16 – 20), they might be shorter or smaller than what they might otherwise have been.  That’s about the only negative effect a child or adult might face in terms of physical development from going off hormone suppressors.  It is not until sex-hormones are introduced into the body that more serious changes take place.

Here’s the thing, though.  The lion’s share of studies I have read on this subject suggest that the number of people that commit unwaveringly to a gender transition once it’s begun (a commitment that begins with such steps as hormone suppressors, dressing and identifying as the opposite sex) is at least as high as 90% (if not higher).  A key to this commitment is the support of family and friends.  If a person has little to no emotional support in their transition, they are more likely to stop the transition.  Still, I reiterate that study after study shows that once an individual starts down the path of a transition, the overwhelming majority never turn back.

Listen to your child.  Watch.  Read.  Love.  If your child starts communicating to you that they may be affected by gender dysphoria, seek out reputable resources to help them live the most happy and productive lives they could ever imagine – even if it might be a life you never did.  Children deserve to be happy – and a child should be worth just as much to their parents regardless of whether they are boys or girls.

Peace to you, dear reader.  Now and always.

Filed under: Op-Ed Tagged: gender dysphoria, hormones, transgender