News and Events => Science & Medical News => Topic started by: Shana A on September 03, 2011, 06:55:56 AM Return to Full Version

Title: In science, doctor’s guidance, family finds hope
Post by: Shana A on September 03, 2011, 06:55:56 AM
In science, doctor's guidance, family finds hope
By Judy Harrison, BDN Staff
Posted Sept. 02, 2011, at 11:21 a.m.

http://bangordailynews.com/2011/09/02/health/in-science-doctor%E2%80%99s-guidance-family-finds-hope/?ref=latest (http://bangordailynews.com/2011/09/02/health/in-science-doctor%E2%80%99s-guidance-family-finds-hope/?ref=latest)

"People need to understand that no one chooses this for themselves or for their child," says Dr. Norman Spack, a pediatric endocrinologist and one of the few physicians in New England who is using a puberty suppression protocol to treat transgender children. "The attempted suicide rate for people who go untreated and unsupported is 45 percent. This population has one of the highest suicide rates of any population in the world. Once they walk in the door for treatment that kind of depression ends."

[...]

Information about the experience of untreated transgender teenagers worried and frightened Wayne and Kelly, parents of Nicole, a transgender teenager and one of Spack's patients. Nicole at first understood that Spack could change her life for the better, but not the specifics of treatment.