I saw the report and Josie's essay. NBC and Hoda Kotb did a excellent report on this. When I saw Josie in this latest report, I was looking into a mirror, except that I did not express my feelings because of the time I lived in. This was some 53 years ago. I did see a shrink at one time when my school recommended one to my mom for problems getting along with my classmates. I was a very thin and sensitive kid and was a target for bullying. It was my impression of a certain intelligence and my love of science that was consistent to the perceived notions at the time as male, so no gender questions were asked if I remember correctly. Yes, my shrink did have a distinctive German accent, she may have been from Austria, a stereotype at the time! Think Sigmund Freud.
Josie was on 14 meds with 17 doses per day! One for Tourette's syndrome! When they took her off of her meds and allowed her to act out her gender preference those uncontrolled temper tantrums ceased. This is familiar for me some 50 or so years agewise later than Josie's coming out. The HRT did work here on my dysphoria, with Josie the simple thing of acting out was the key. This might of worked for me if they were more tolerent back then. We would be institutionalized if we came out and acted out like this regardless of our parents feelings!
Josie is lucky in these days of more tolerance to the gender variant. There are more treatment options than I would have and the knowledge base has increased as more people came forward these past 50 years. Josie still has options with the hormone blockers that she is on now. 2 to 3 years from now we might know, we'll see. Dr. Spack said of the "Over-the-top dysphoria" cases he gets, some do change their mind before getting off of the hormone blockers. Dr. Spack also said that of the children that expressed gender dysphoria at around age 8 when Josie's story started, only 20% of those cases were over-the-top as he stated and treats only those in the 20% group. The other 80% he said they changed their mind before puberty or are gender variant including gay and lesbian. I knew this all along. Thanks, Dr. Spack for bringing this out.
For those parents who are on this forum looking at this after seeing this report, be patient with your child. To the children who perceived themselves as the other gender, the same as I answered to Maÿlis earlier. My outcome might have been different If I had the proper treatment in the early 1960's. Thank you for the time reading this.
Joelene
