Dr. Oz discussed transgendered children with Dr. Robert Garofalo from the Howard Brown Health Center in Chicago. What do you do when your son says he is meant to be a she or your daughter says she is meant to be a he? Would you let your child become the opposite gender? Would you let your child have gender changing surgery and alter their body? Dr. Oz took us inside the life of transgendered kids, a highly controversial topic that challenges the beliefs of what it means to be a male or female.
A transgender kid is a child where the gender on the outside does not match the gender on the inside. They can show signs of being transgendered as early as 2 or 3 years old. Transgenderism is not as rare as you think – 3 million Americans believe they were born the wrong gender. Where does gender come from: your anatomy or your thoughts and feelings? Some parents allow their children to take hormone blockers to stop puberty and others heed the advice of psychiatrists who say that a child is transgendered does not necessarily translate into a transgender adult.
Terri says
Just a short note. I, myself have had to deal with this scenario all my life and then some. Though I don’t have time to discuss much, I absolutely do know what it is like to have to deal with the feeling of being me and being what I’m told I’m supposed to. I was to my understanding born a hermaphrodite, though apparently some surgery was performed as a baby…. this I know by the remnant of a scar across my abdomen and the myriad of stretch marks… Though my life began as a boy… it was something that I could not bear and never was able to identify as such. The hardest part of it is the label. It doesn’t matter what I was called or reffered to as – – – all I wanted was to be normal…. NOT LABELED. So if you truly want to help a lot of these kids, stop with the public labeling and the 21 question salute… all one has to do is pay attention and (within reason) allow them to be who they are… Yes there’s a lot more to it than that, but my time is short this morning. My best to you in all your efforts,
Terri B.