#TRANSGENDER CHILDREN EVERYWHERE SKIN#
To envisage them happening to me does not just make my skin crawl. I, who am what they call “cisgender” (happy and comfortable with my biological body) contemplate hormone therapy and sex-change surgery with a sense of primal revulsion.
As Camille Paglia wrote, “every single cell of the human body remains coded with one’s birth gender for life.” It leaves constant reminders that what has happened is an intervention against forces of nature which have proven incorrigibly stubborn. Transition is a lifelong commitment to maintenance, to digging in one’s heels each day against the biological motions of one’s own flesh. Artificial vaginas, especially, need to be dilated regularly or they will develop scabs and close up. The formation of an artificial penis (phalloplasty or metoidioplasty) or a vagina (vaginoplasty) is a procedure whose results will forever be treated by the body as an open wound or an alien invasion. The body, primed for its final alterations like a slab of meat tenderized before carving, will submit more readily and convincingly to being transformed.īut it is never a simple or painless thing to remove a penis (penectomy) and testicles (orchiectomy) or a uterus (hysterectomy). Simona Giordano, writing in the Journal of Medical Ethics (2008), “Cross-sex surgery, for transgender people whose puberty has not been suppressed, is going to be much more invasive.” Childhood transition can eliminate the need for a mastectomy or breast implants and decrease the likelihood of sidelong glances from passersby. One aim of childhood transition, of course, is to make such surgery less traumatic and more effective: in the words of Dr. Boys grow breasts girls’ voices change musculature, facial structure, and bone density are irrevocably altered.
Those changes are perceptible and permanent, like the ones that would have happened if the child had been allowed to develop past Tanner Stage Two. The child then develops along lines usually associated with the opposite sex. If the child reacts positively to this, then cross-hormone therapy-estrogen for boys and testosterone for girls-can be administered to stimulate a sort of alternative puberty. The most common kind, called gonadotropin-releasing hormone antagonists ( GnRHa), are usually injected or implanted in the flesh of the arm to prevent the onset of sexual maturity. Breasts develop.īefore any of that happens, kids who have been socially transitioned without regret may start taking puberty blockers. If no intervention is made, pubic hair begins to appear. At that point, which typically comes between the ages of about nine and 11, the endocrine system tries to release hormones that catalyze permanent, visible changes. But in rough outline, the procedure recommended by clinicians goes like this.įirst, the child “socially transitions,” adopting the clothes and pronouns of the opposite sex so as to experience what it’s like to do so before reaching Tanner Stage Two of puberty. The specifics of those options vary on a case-by-case basis. When little boys say they want to grow up into women, and little girls say they want to grow up into men, there are options available for adults who want to help them do it. This essay, which presents firsthand accounts from Lucy and others like her, is an effort to make their voices heard. Though she opposed the new practices, she felt powerless to speak up against them publicly without losing her job.Īfter some research it became clear to me that a considerable number of teachers and parents are finding themselves in Lucy’s position, and more will soon. For months, the public school where she worked had been installing draconian rules to ensure that the children in her care be allowed, if they wished, to pursue a change of gender. She was distraught and didn’t know where else to go. Some months ago I was contacted in my office by a woman I’ll call Lucy. Please be aware that this article contains graphic descriptions of surgical procedures and first-person interviews which may be very disturbing to some readers.-Eds.
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