Melbourne,
Victoria — A 15-YEAR-OLD Melbourne girl who is
convinced she is a boy has started the process to have
sex-swap surgery. The girl, who lives life as a boy,
would be one of the youngest sex-swap patients in
Australia if she has her wish.
The teen's mother is
distraught at the prospect and ethicists are outraged by
the proposed surgery on someone so young.
The girl's mother told
the Herald Sun she was torn between a desire to
end her child's agony and fear that her daughter may
change her mind later.
The girl and her mother,
from a Melbourne bayside suburb, recently consulted Kew
surgeon Simon Ceber about a mastectomy.
The mother, who must give
consent, has pleaded with authorities through the Herald
Sun to outlaw the surgery for under-21s so the decision
is out of parents' hands.
"It's very difficult as a
mother, because I don't even see any glimmers of my
daughter any more," said the woman, who asked to be known
as "Gabrielle".
"On the one
hand, I'm in the camp of people who say it's a very
dangerous thing to do.
"On the other hand, I
see the pain my child goes through at being in all
respects male except for the body.
"If we had a law in
place, it would protect parents from giving in."
Medical ethicist Dr
Nicholas Tonti-Filippini warned the surgery could be
illegal and called on Attorney-General Rob Hulls to order
a review by the Family Court.
"I'm just
flabbergasted," Dr Tonti-Filippini said. "I just can't
understand how anybody would basically remove the
healthy organs of a teenager. It's bad enough to do it
to an adult.
"She's still a child
at 15."
The family were referred
to Dr Ceber by Monash Medical Centre's gender dysphoria
clinic.
"We are all very
concerned," Dr Ceber said.
"It's a very, very
difficult situation because if you leave it for too
long, then the extent of the mastectomy has to be much
greater because the patient is growing all the time.
"In this particular
case, she is convinced she is a boy, and is feeling
more and more distressed as the breasts continue
growing.
"But this child has
not deviated from her thoughts since she was very,
very young."
Dr Ceber said only a
mastectomy could be done at this age, and a penis
construction would have to wait until the patient was
close to 21.
He said he had never
performed a sex-swap mastectomy younger than the early
20s, but did not know if the child would be the youngest
in Australia.
Dr Ceber said the breasts
could be rebuilt to some extent if the child changed her
mind.
Elizabeth Riley, general
manager of transgender support group the Gender Centre
<http://www.gendercentre.org.au/>,
said she had never heard of anyone as young as 15 in
Australia having gender reassignment surgery.
Dr Trudy Kennedy,
director of Monash's gender clinic, and Dr Ceber said
surgery could not proceed without an application to the
Family Court <http://www.familycourt.gov.au/>.
But Gabrielle said no one
had ever suggested to her she would need to apply to any
court.
Gabrielle is torn after
years of listening to her daughter's pleas.
"We saw the
surgeon a couple of weeks ago about the bilateral
mastectomy even though I have my doubts, because my
child has been looking forward to this," Gabrielle
said.
"I don't want to dash
all hopes and make him feel miserable."
The girl dresses, speaks,
and is treated like a boy and has long since used a boy's
name. Only family and a few close friends know the truth.
But Gabrielle said her
daughter was determined to complete her transformation
with surgery.
"He wants to be
able to get about like other guys, with no top on . .
. he can't, because there are boobs there and the
nipples are quite prominent."
The girl, the youngest of
two sisters, was a tomboy from the age of three.
She refused to wear
school dresses throughout primary school, and has kept
her hair short since age seven or eight.
In primary school, she
would send notes to her mother saying such things as,
"Dear Mum, I want a penis."
When the girl was in
grade six, her mother was called in to see the
vice-principal because the girl had been telling her
classmates she was really a boy.
The girl withdrew from
school last year because she was being bullied by a boy
who knew her secret.
Gabrielle was ready to
agree to the surgery until she saw an Australian Story
episode on Alan Finch, who underwent a sex change from a
man to a woman and then back again when he realised he
had made a mistake.
Acting Democrats leader
Lyn Allison wants an inquiry into gender reassignment
surgery after speaking to several people who later
changed their minds.
