Beverly* from Oregon emails me: “Urgent need help with ROGD daughter please answer ASAP.” Her daughter announced out of the blue that she’s a boy (this is called Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria, or ROGD). I’m a child and adolescent psychiatrist, and I receive messages like this almost daily. That’s because unlike most of my colleagues, I won’t automatically affirm a child’s new identity, or refer her to a clinic where she’ll be put on experimental hormone therapy.
Beverly has reason to panic. She learned not only that her daughter, a 15-year-old, has declared herself to be a boy, but that her daughter’s best friend and main influence, Mia, just had her breasts removed as part of her own male identification process. Beverly is beside herself. “Do doctors really do that to a 16-year-old?” she asks incredulously. “They sure do,” I reply.
Read Full Article »