http://www2.macleans.ca/2011/08/12/when-boys-would-rather-not-be-boys/
Read this article about transgender teenagers to get a better idea of what is going on.
Cormac went to my elementary school and was in my brothers class. This was a kid that was obviously never happy as a girl and never would be comfortable as a girl. Cormac was incredibly lucky to have understanding parents and to start the transition at the very beginning of high school. And doubtless if they could have started him on hormone blockers before puberty started it would have made things a lot easier for him and for his eventual transition.
A couple of important quotes from this article:
"about 80 per cent of prepubescent children who identify as the opposite gender will change their minds, while 20 per cent will persist." - That is a huge number. It scares me a little that 4 out of 5 kids would be given hormone blockers unnecessarily
""Puberty blockers—which are reversible and can be administered to patients as young as 10—can be initiated before undesired secondary sex characteristics emerge, says Metzger. The treatment not only changes the course of sexual development but also temporarily eliminates patients’ sex drive—a huge relief to kids who need to “focus on their transitioning, school and therapy,” Metzger says. The hormone blockers—usually Lupron, a $400-a-month injectable synthetic hormone—can be stopped at any time, allowing puberty to resume."
"Metzger defends early intervention by arguing that the cessation of undesired—and unmistakable—secondary sex characteristics is key to ensuring that transgender adolescents blend seamlessly into an image-obsessed society when they mature. “I have met lots of adults who transitioned in their 20s and 30s and they look at me like I’m the saviour,” says Metzger, who began treating transgender adolescents 12 years ago—and none of them have regretted their transition. “They say, ‘Oh my God, if there had been someone like you when I was younger, my life would have been totally different. I wouldn’t have spent bazillions of dollars on electrolysis or I wouldn’t have this enormous square jaw.’ They think that the new generation of young transgender kids are so much luckier for being able to do what they knew they wanted to do when they were 12.”"
-NOT A SINGLE PERSON HAS REGRETTED THEIR TRANSITION. NONE OF THEM.
