IN the DR documentary ‘I will not be girl, mother,’ follows 11-year-old Kim. He is the youngest in Denmark, there is a treatment that stops the body’s development as a girl.
the Broadcast has put a hefty debate.
Doctors do not know the physical effects of the hormone therapy for children and young people. At the same time, can the intervention improve children’s quality of life.
– We know that it has a tremendous psychological disadvantage to the children and young people to begin to develop in an undesirable direction biologically, says Helge Sune Nymand, næstforperson at the Association for Support for Transgender Children.
– It can lead to anxiety, depression, suicide attempts and so on, he says.
Nevertheless want a number of politicians to put an upper age limit for the examination is 18 years old.
– We think it is too early to start an irreversible treatment of the children, when you do not know, what consequences it will have on that person in the future, says Liselott Blixt, health and psykiatriordfører in the Danish people’s Party.
Amendment
In 2016, the removed board of Health, the age limit to offer hormone therapy to transgender children and young people.
Previously there was a alderesgrænse 12 years to get stophormoner, which stops puberty, and 16 years to get krydshormoner, which puts a sex change started. Now it is instead a personal and medical assessment, when one offers hormone replacement therapy.
the national board of Health has placed emphasis on children’s well-being as well as the experiences from other countries with similar guidelines. Among other things, the Netherlands, where it has been possible to give children the treatment since 1987.
The past five years, almost 500 children and young people were referred from the doctor with a presumption that they are transgender. The number of referrals has increased significantly after this change in the law in 2016.
the Doctors know that the treatment can have negative side effects on for example metabolism, the risk of blood clots, as well as the possibility of having children. The precise long-term impact is not yet known.
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Doctors and Health know that the hormone treatment can have physical negative side effects. The exact long-term consequences do not.
at the same time, studies and experiences, to the transgender children and young people living with a significantly reduced quality of life. A new study prepared by Statens Serum Institut and Aalborg University has among other things shown that one in four transgender attempt suicide.
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Rasmus Berg Jacobsen is transgender and has been on hormone treatment for five years. He started first in the treatment after puberty. Private
For Extra of the Magazine’s transgender Rasmus Berg Jacobsen on 31 told of how he attempted suicide during puberty, because his body changed in a wrong direction.
It was only when I became a teenager, and my body began to develop, it became a problem, says Rasmus, who first started in hormone replacement therapy as a 26-year-old.
– the First time I tried to commit suicide, I was around 15-16 years old. And since it happened regularly, that I tried to take my own life.
DF: – Stop processing
Several parties are in doubt as to what they believe, and choose to sit up at the Health assessment. At the Danish people’s Party is the attitude, however, clear.
– We do not believe that there should be offered hormone therapy for children and young people under the age of 18 years, tells the health and psykiatriordfører Liselott Blixt.
And what is with the argument that children have a significantly impaired quality of life – among other things due to the unwanted physical changes they undergo during puberty?
– We must take care of their uncertainty. They will, even after the hormone therapy, come in crisis or meet other challenges that must be handled.
– It is wrong to give them a choice, which is as large as the gender they will be. There will also be some who regret.
the Danish people’s Party will therefore take the matter up with the minister of health, Magnus Heunicke, when they meet with the Ethics Council next year.
After the story about 11-year-old Kim, who dealt with stophormoner, has also Mette Abildgaard from the Conservatives stated on Facebook that she is against the treatment.
‘You fail simply his child, if you let it commence gender reassignment as an 11 year old!’ she writes.
‘In the age of you might be able to assess what you will have for dinner and to nøds, when you will be in bed, but in no way of which gender you will have for the rest of his life. It is so huge and existential a question, that it is not for children,’ she rolls fixed in the advertisement.
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the Association for Support for Transgender Children look different on it.
Those discussing it here are not necessarily those who know most about it. The doctors assess the not that it is unhealthy to take stophormoner. They say we don’t have 70 years of experience with it, so we can not say with certainty what the long-term consequences are, says næstforpersonen in the association, Helge Sune Nymand.
– I would advise the politicians to speak with fagpersonerne and the children and young people, it is all about.
How many undo a sex change?
– Thorough studies show that we are very down to 0.4 percent, which implements a hormonal transition and subsequently choose to go back. And many of them justify the decision that they are not being met with recognition in the society after their shift.
It has not been possible to get a comment from the minister of health, Magnus Heunicke (S).
