How young is too young when it comes to gender reassignment? That's a question some parents and medical professionals around the world are grappling with. Last week, the British government approved the use of hormone blockers to prevent puberty for gender-confused kids as young as 12. Now, a judge in Australia has approved sex-change therapy drugs for a 10-year-old boy named Jamie, who has been living as a girl for the past two years. Jamie will be allowed to medically delay her rapidly approaching male puberty, and the court will re-examine the case if and when Jamie is ready to start "stage-two" estrogen therapy. Cosmetic surgery to change genitalia cannot take place until the age of 18. "The rapid onset of her male puberty has demanded some urgent decisions," the judge said. But was this decision the right one?
Yes, it's in the child's best interest: "Jamie can live comfortably as a girl, is socially confident and suffers no teasing or social isolation," says her mother, as quoted in the Herald Sun. But if Jamie doesn't start treatment now, she'll start developing male characteristics — an Adam's apple, facial hair, a cracking voice. That could be devastating to her. And, once those changes take place, they will be permanent, while doctors say the early treatment to stop male puberty is reversible.
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