12-Year-Old Begins Sex Reassignment Therapy
Vienna—A 12-year-old Austrian is believed to be the youngest person in the world to start a sex-change procedure.Born biologically male and named Tim by her parents, the child from birth rejected male identifiers, adopted the name Kim, and at the age of 12 was diagnosed officially as transsexual.
Following physical and psychological examinations doctors determined it would be in Kim's best interests to immediately begin gender reassignment.
Her birth records have been changed to reflect her correct sex and name and doctors started administering hormone treatments.
That was two years ago, although media reports in Europe are just reporting her story.
In an interview with the the German news magazines Stern and Der Spiegel, Kim's father, identified only as Lutz P., said that while they were at first concerned, they grew to see their child as a girl.
"We saw Kim as a girl, but not as a problem. Our life was surprisingly normal," he said.
But he said that when Kim began to show the first signs of puberty she became depressed.
"At that stage we realized that she was terrified of growing facial hair and her voice breaking."
While some doctors wanted to wait until she was older before starting sex reassignment, others said it should commence immediately because growing up to be a man could permanently damage her emotionally.
"Kim is a mentally well-developed child who appears happy and balanced," Dr. Bern Meyenburg who studies transsexuality in teens at Frankfurt University, wrote in his diagnosis.
"There is no doubt of the determined wish, that was already detectable since early childhood. It would have been very wrong to let Kim grow up to be a man. It is rare to have such a clear-cut case."