Should I help my 12-year-old get a sex change?
When children are adamant that they are trapped in the wrong body, is it ethical to offer them hormone treatment? A concerned mother and a Dutch psychologist believe the answer is 'yes'

Catherine Bruton

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/child_health/article4359432.ece

Last year Sharon Lane* found her 12-year-old son Nick* trying to cut off his penis. Since he was a toddler, Nick has been adamant that he is really a girl. Aged 5, he declared: "God has made a mistake. I should have been born a girl." A year later he asked, "When can I have the operation to chop off my willy and give me a fanny?"

Nicky - who suffers from a rare condition called Gender Variance (GV), sometimes referred to clinically as Gender Identity Disorder (GID) - started attending school dressed as a girl at the age of 9, unable to "pretend" any longer. She was the subject of constant bullying and harassment so severe that she now attends a special school for "at risk" children.