A small but steadily increasing number of teens, and even younger children, are undergoing sex-change operations because they feel they were born the wrong sex. According to recent reports in the journal Pediatrics, the issue has raised ethical questions in the medical community.
According to Dr. Norman Spack, who directs one of the country's first medical clinics for those with gender identity issues, at Children's Hospital Boston, estimates that 1 in 10,000 children have such issues. While occasionally pretending to be the opposite sex is common during childhood, these kids persistently feel that they were born the wrong gender.
Now, there are hormone therapies and sex-change surgeries available to these kids as they hit puberty. These can include breast augmentation for boys who feel that they are girls, or breast reduction in those who are born as girls but plan to transition into men. Such procedures are only offered by a handful of doctors within the U.S., although millions of similar procedures are performed each year for purely cosmetic reasons.
However, offering such treatments to kids who aren't yet 18 raises some ethical concerns, says Dr. Margaret Moon, who is on the bioethics committee of the American Academy of Pediatrics. She expressed concern over irreversible treatments performed too early. However, doctors who perform such procedures say that withholding it from teens can cause substantial harm.
A series of reports recently published in Pediatrics found that hospitals that provide sex-change treatment or other therapies related to gender identity issues have seen a significant increase in patients over the past two decades.
