Unhappy as a boy, Kim became youngest ever transsexual at 12

[Roon]

A boy of 12 is believed to have become the world's youngest sex change patient after convincing doctors that he wanted to live the rest of his life as a female.

The boy - originally called Tim, but now known as Kim - has started to receive hormone treatment, in preparation for the operation that will eventually complete the sex change.

Tim was diagnosed as a transsexual two years ago, when doctors and psychiatrists concluded that his claims to be "in the wrong body" were so deeply felt that he required treatment. The therapy involves artificially arresting male puberty, with a series of potent hormone injections before the administration of female hormones to initiate the development of features such as breasts.

Now aged 14, and officially registered as a female, Kim looks like a typical girl of her age. She dresses in fashionable clothes, has long blonde hair and blue eyes and dreams of moving to Paris to become a fashion designer. Her parents, who initially assumed their son was going through a temporary phase, eventually grew accustomed to seeing him as a girl.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/01/28/wkim28.xml

[ikojo]

1. It so wouldn't happen in the US

He would be required to grow up and then make the change as an adult and most often using his own funds.

[mondo joe]

2. I think that's way too young for surgical intervention.

The hormone intervention however is hard to say.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

3. i am conflicted. while 12 is too young for some things i am unsure that suffering through

ones teens is really necessary either.

i dont know. its a hard call.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

4. Same here.

Usually I'd be against major surgery for minors, but I guess with the onset of puberty they had extenuating circumstances.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

5. yes and if someone felt very strongly about their gender, its not fair to make them suffer

some things are always in shades of gray.