transit-website/children.md

% Children

**There is a private clinic in the UK which prescribes HRT quickly, including to children. You can request blockers or full HRT, even at age

1. They have prescribed full HRT to children in the past! Go to the GenderGP clinic. You do not have to go to them physically, you can do everything over the internet, and they are licensed doctors. If you want *prescribed* HRT (or just blockers, if that's what you want, but they also will prescribe full HRT if you want it), then this is your best bet. The NHS, by comparison, will make you wait, and by that time you're screwed because you have breasts. Or a beard. Or a deep voice. Or periods. Don't delay! These people are here to help you.**

You need to self-medicate on puberty blockers, purchased on the internet

You will not get puberty blockers before your puberty damages you if using NHS. The only way to guarantee it is to self-medicate. The supplier that you use will ship the blockers to you quickly, usually within a week.

Go to our HRT self-medication page for information about how to get HRT on the internet (also includes some advice on dosages). (also see note about GenderGP above, if you don't want to self-medicate)

If you are of puberty age, and you're trans, it's vital that you start on puberty blockers immediately. Go on the NHS to get them, but be warned: you will be severely delayed in starting it, because of underfunding and understaffing of transgender services on the NHS. You can blame our rightwing government for that, for not having the foresight to provide adequate additional funding for the NHS in the UK.

NHS guidelines say that children of puberty age should be given puberty blockers until they are 16, at which point they can also take estradiol or testosterone, depending on which way they're going.

PARENTS: this is IMPORTANT!

You need to make sure that your child DOES NOT go through their genetical puberty, the one that their body is programmed to go through. It makes most trans people depressed, or worse, suicidal, especially as they get older. If you love your child, you will let them take hormones, including hormone blockers, as early as physically possible.

The NHS is SLOW and your child will likely go through most of their puberty by the time they get blockers. You can purchase blockers on the internet. Check out our self-medication HRT page which shows how to purchase hormone blockers on the internet - NOTE: most private trans care providers won't see children, so you're stuck with the NHS, and you're stuck with self-medication.

DO NOT DELAY. You have a moral responsibility as a parent to ensure the safety and happiness of your child as they grow up. If you allow them to go through their genitical puberty, you could very well end up with a dead child. Transgender people under the age of 25 are 5x more likely to commit suicide than their non-transgender peers, according to official statistics. This is directly related to trauma brought about by their puberty (if they went through their self-mutilating genetical puberty), and abuse that they might receive because of that, especially if they start *not passing as their desired gender* as a result.

We are deadly serious about this. No child should ever be forced to suffer body dysphoria.

Moving on...

Most private clinics only see adult patients (17 or older, in some cases 21 or older). You will need to come out to your parents, because you typically need parental permission.

Book an appointment with your GP, and say that you are transgender and wish to transition. Whether trans woman, trans man or non-binary, you should then ask your GP to refer you to a Gender Identity Clinic.

Some GPs are assholes. Please report them. Also report the awesome ones!

Even with private care, you'll still use your GP for a lot of things probably, including blood tests and endocrinologist referrals, unless you get those privately too. The following external website maintains a register of good and bad GPs:\ http://transfigurations.org.uk/trans-friendly-doctors/

Get a blood test BEFORE endo, and take the results with you.

A trans person in the UK who had a bad bad GP spoke to their local elected MP and got her to write to the government. This letter from the UK Government's Depatment of Health outlines GP requirements and states that they are required by law to immediately refer you to a gender clinic when you request gender transitioning services.

When you go to that GP, regardless of whether you think it will go well (most GPs are OK), take a printout of that letter with you just in case.

Thanks go to Gina Denham of the Transpire support group for sharing this letter.

Going about the process

Here is a list of NHS gender identity clinics (for UK residents): http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/Transhealth/Pages/local-gender-identity-clinics.aspx The clinic that you choose will send you some forms to fill in. Fill them in and make sure to book the earliest appointment possible.

Children are not currently given full HRT, in the UK or even most countries. If you're a trans woman, you might be able to get antiandrogens (puberty blockers) which block testosterone; this blocks your genetic puberty (e.g. they block body/facial hair development, block voice deepening, etc). For trans men, you might get prescribed antiestrogens which block breast development, etc.

Teenage trans children are not typically given estrogen until they're

1. Teenage trans men are not typically given testosterone until they're 17. Testosterone is also a controlled substance in most countries, which make it more difficult to self-medicate on it.

For non-binary children, we're not sure. You should probably take puberty blockers to block your natural puberty, and then decide what you want to do later. Or you might not. It's always different because there is a lot more variance with non-binary people.

Genital surgery is not typically provided for trans children. They must first become adults.

We at Transit believe that children should be able to full transition. If you're a 12 year old trans woman (12 is when puberty usually begins in trans women, without puberty blockers), we think that you should be able to start taking estrogen. If you're a 10 year old trans man (10 is the usual puberty starting age for trans men, without hormone blockers), we think you should be able to start testosterone immediately.

If you're a parent of a trans child, and your child has only just become of puberty age, it is your *moral duty* to make sure that they do ***NOT*** start their genetic puberty ***AT ALL***. For most trans kids, this will result in extreme dysphoria which will, as their puberty progresses and as they become adults, they will become severely depressed and even suicidal in many cases. If you love your child, then you should allow them to go through the puberty of their real gender, the one that they came out to you as.

Parents of trans children: please read our HRT self-medication guide which describes how to purchase hormones on the internet and how to take them at safe doses. Hormone blockers are not enough. You need to make sure that your child transitions early, otherwise they are going to grow up depressed (most trans kids have gender dysphoria, a type of depression and anxiety resulting from a mismatch in their body with their internal gender identity, which gets worse over time). By not letting your child transition, you risk losing your child. More than half of transgender people under the age of 25 currently commit suicide because of trauma from their teenage years, and abuse/discrimination resulting from not passing, if they were forced to go through their genetic puberty. If you do not let your child transition, you risk losing your child - permanently.

For surgery, we have a page about this. See /surgery/ - for children, surgery is not available in the UK or most countries, but you might be able to get surgery for your child privately in another country. We wish to research this and put information about it on the website, but we currently have no information about this.