Dateline - July 8, 2012

Last night Dateline on NBC aired a segment called "Transgender children in America encounter new crossroads with medicine".  As I watched it, I was full of emotions.  The segment was about a child who knew he was a girl at a very young age.  But before she realized it and her parents realized it, she was depressed and agitated all the time.  Doctors prescribed about 13 different drugs for depression, ADHD, and anxiety.  It was until one doctor saw her playing with a doll and she lifted her shirt to breast feed the doll did the doctor realize that she was suffering from gender identity disorder.  Once the parents accepted this and allow her to dress and live as a girl did she calm down and was no longer depressed.  However, most doctors refused to treat her with blockers and estrogen.  Why is it ok to give a three to six year old Prozac and 12 other drugs equating to 17 doses a day, but yet it is wrong to prescribe anything to actually help her.  By six years old she knew she was a girl in a boys body.  By nine years old she was in utter fear of puberty and becoming more masculine.  She even contemplated taking matters into her own hands and performing her own surgery to remove her penis.  Thank goodness her mom stopped her.  Why don't people understand that we know who we are from a very early age??  One doctor interviewed said that gender identity was a phase that most children suffering gender identity disorder grow out of it once they go through puberty.  I disagree.  I believe that most "grow out of it" due to societal pressures and force themselves to hide who they are.  Out of fear and being ashamed due to their upbringing or religion.  How many children end up killing themselves because they can not be who they really are??  When will people learn that we know who we are at an early age and embrace it instead of ignoring it??  You can't fix gender identity disorder with anti-depressants, anti-anxiety, and ADHD drugs.  If you want to help someone, embrace who they really are and help them become the person/gender that they are meant to be, who they know in their hearts and minds, they are supposed to be.