children.md 7.0 KB
% Children
If you are a child and trans, congratulations! You know who you are at such an young age. Many trans people will envy you! Society treats trans people better and better as time goes by, that means your life will get better and better. You might have fears about puberty, especially if it would change your body in ways you do not want. Fear not. You are not alone. Many trans children have overcome these issues. And there is a nice webcomic, Assigned Male, with the theme of trans children.
Avoiding the wrong puberty
You need to see a private clinic or self-medicate to avoid the wrong puberty. You will simply not have enough time to wait for the national health services in your country until puberty hits. Because of a lack of funding in most countries these services will make you wait, or your country might have laws against prescribing puberty blockers to children. And then you're screwed because you have breasts. Or a beard. Or a deep voice. Or periods. Therefor research whether your country has child- and trans-friendly GP's or consider self-medicating. If you are of puberty age, and you're trans, it's vital that you start on puberty blockers immediately.
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.
National health services are 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. Self medicating might sound daunting, but if you do not have access to child- and trans-friendly private clinics, which one is better: having a deeply traumatized child, or do the research and help them grow as they see themselves.
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 genetical puberty, you could very well end up with a dead child. Transgender people under the age of 25 are five times 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.
Starting the process
You will need to come out to your parents, because you typically need parental permission for puberty blockers. 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. In many countries the law requires the doctor to immediately refer you to a gender clinic when you request gender transitioning services. You might find letters by the government explaining this, or simply find what the law states. Print these out and take them with you as you go request transition.
Going about the process
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 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 their peers are well into puberty. Teenage trans men are not typically given testosterone until they're almost adults. 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.
Moral responsibility against child suffering
We at Transit believe that children should be able to fully 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, make them 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.