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I'm curious. From the perspective of a parent, what age do you think it would be reasonable to consider this? It's tough because you don't want a kid to suffer during formative years, and what should be carefree ones. However, you don't want them to do something that they might regret to some extent later.
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Well from the perspective of both a parent and a transgender woman I can tell you that when it comes to gender identity we are aware of whats going on from a very young age most of the time and that a lot of self image issues and difficulty socializing arise from not transitioning younger. The concern of them possibly changing their minds while logically valid only occurs in about 1% of transgender people, the simple fact is we know who we are. So to answer your question you should take your child to a gender specialist the moment they show serious signs of gender identity issues. I think hormone replacement should begin at puberty and SRS should be allowed as soon as the psychologist determines that they actually do suffer from GID. Anything other than this is inflicting cruelty on the child to satisfy cultural norms.
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Thanks. It's good to know. It's very difficult not having gone through the experience knowing what maps onto it and what doesn't. For example, I wouldn't have a clue of the likelihood that a young boy that feels that he should be a girl might later decide that he'd rather be a effeminate male, and (I guess) be more comfortable with a mix of mind and body. When first thinking on it, the notion of a tattoo came to mind, but that's clearly ridiculous.
Maybe the best way to think of it would be as if I were born physically as a girl. I believe my mental identity of being a boy would have been very strong very early. I suppose as a parent my number one goal would be to help them to find the place they feel right through the least traumatic course possible.
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