10/07/2015 / By Julie Wilson
Video of a 14-year-old male-to-female (MTF) transgender teen receiving hormone treatments for the first time went viral after the mother uploaded the experience on YouTube. Corey was visibly ecstatic after her mother surprised her with the teen’s first dose of hormones, a moment she had reportedly been anticipating for more than 2 and a half years.
Once Corey discovered the hormones, which were hidden in the sofa as a surprise, “She squeezed me, and I stopped the camera so I could hug her back,” the teen’s mother told BuzzFeed News. “Neither of us let go for what seemed like an eternity.”
Erica says Corey has been feminine since a very young age.
“She loved to dress in high heels and dresses. In public she wore boy clothes — I just assumed she might be gay.” Corey suffered a significant amount of abuse while in public schools, prompting Erica to begin homeschooling.
Pre-teen gets $21,000 “puberty-suppressing” implant
It was then that her daughter started to express herself even more freely, dressing as a female in public. Corey was given a “puberty-suppressing” implant around the age of 11 or 12 that cost $21,000, not including the surgical costs to insert it.
“It’s usually a fight to get the insurance to cover it for gender dysphoria, and we were fully prepared to write letters, make phone calls, whatever it took to get it covered…” said Erica.
The hormone treatment satisfied a desire that Corey’s been experiencing for the majority of her life, but the girl’s young age begs the question, is giving hormone treatments to a developing child really safe? The medical community seems to be divided on this issue.
Corey’s story is not unique; while the exact prevalence of transgender individuals is unknown, some hard estimates do exist.
Gendercentre.org.au reports that about 800 to 1,000 MTF sex reassignment surgeries (SRS) are performed each year in the U.S., with even more being performed on Americans abroad – such as in Thailand “where the quality of SRS is excellent and the cost is much lower.”
Using these numbers, the Gender Center estimates there are at least 32,000 – 40,000 post-operative transsexual women in the U.S.
To determine the prevalence of MTF SRS, the organization divided 32,000 by 80,000,000 (the number of males aged 18-60 in the U.S. as well as the approximate age for which most current post-ops originated).
According to their math, one out of every 2,500 individuals born male in the U.S. has undergone SRS to become a female, a number far higher than previous estimates which say a mere 0.2 to 0.3 percent of the population is transgender, or about 1 in 30,000 for MTF transsexualism, and 1 in 100,000 for FTM transsexualism.
Are hormone treatments for trans children safe?
Trans people are far more than common than some may expect, so what does the science say regarding the safety of hormone treatments, particularly in children?
The first step towards changing gender is puberty blockers, which prevent physical changes such as the development of breasts and facial hair, said Dr. Johanna Olson, the medical director of the transgender clinic at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles in an interview with ABC News.
Puberty blockers are not permanent, and the effects can be reversed. However, not without some risks, which may affect bone and height development.
The second step for “medical transitioning” is cross-gender hormones, which stimulate the development of breasts with estrogen, and facial hair with testosterone. These are irreversible and can have permanent effects on fertility – making them controversial especially when administered to young children.
Based on the fact that cross-gender hormones can permanently sterilize children, they are not recommended for kids under the age of 16, according to the United States Endocrine Society, a proposal shared in the Netherlands, United Kingdom and Australia.
Despite that recommendation, doctors are administering cross-gender hormones to children 12-years-old and younger. This is especially problematic as the majority of trans kids choose not to transition as adults, according to a 2014 report from the Hastings Center by Jack Drescher and Jack Pula.
The unintended consequences of transitioning can leave lifelong scars, according to The Federalist’s Walt Heyer, who transitioned to a female for eight years before reverting to a male again.
“Treating the psychological or psychiatric disorder is the answer, not changing genders,” says Heyer.
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