All Articles Tagged "Pediatrics"

Sex-Change Treatments Increasing Among Young Kids

February 21st, 2012 - By Brande Victorian
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Source: DailyMail

There’s a huge difference between a little girl dressing up as a boy and a little boy believing he is actually a girl, and according to three reports in the journal pediatrics, and increasing number of kids are falling into the latter category.

Gender identity disorder is the psychiatric diagnosis these kids are often labeled with, but doctors like Norman Spack, author of the reports and director of one of the nation’s first gender identity medical clinics at Children’s Hospital Boston, believe in emerging research that suggests these kids may have brain differences more similar to the opposite sex. Spack told Time magazine 1 in 10,000 children may have this condition.

An 8-year-old patient in Los Angeles is discussed heavily in the report. The child, who was born a girl, reportedly announced that she was a boy at 18 months and has stuck with that thinking ever since. The family is now waiting for the first signs of puberty to begin treatment and the mother says when her child found out they could give drugs to block breast development, “he was so excited.”

According to Spack, if kids start drug treatments early they’ll more easily pass for the opposite sex and will require less dramatic treatments later. He also says the drugs used by the clinics, which are reversible, are approved for delaying puberty in kids who start maturing too soon. The idea, he says, is to give children time to mature emotionally and make sure they want to proceed with a permanent sex change. According to him, only 1 of the 97 children discussed in the report opted out of permanent treatment.

But this work is not without ethical concerns. Dr. Margaret Moon, a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ bioethics committee, said the motives of kids and their parents need to be examined before beginning treatment in patients under the age of 18. She says some kids may get a psychiatric diagnosis when they are just uncomfortable with narrowly defined gender roles; or others who are gay may be coerced into treatment by parents who are more comfortable with a sex change than having a homosexual child.

But while she says receiving sex-change treatment too young can be harmful, others think not having treatment is more harmful, citing self-destructive behaviors the kids often develop such as cutting and suicide attempts, not to mention the stress and depression. Boston Hospital seems to prove that this service is one both gender-questioning kids and their parents want. Since opening it’s gender service management clinic in 2007, they’ve seen a four-fold increase in patients, and according to Spack:

“If you open the doors, these are the kids who come. They’re out there. They’re in your practices.”

What do you think about gender identity disorder? What age do you think is too young to begin gender reassignment therapy?

Brande Victorian is a blogger and culture writer in New York City. Follower her on Twitter at @be_vic.

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More Screening May Explain Higher Rates of Chlamydia Among Minority Women

February 14th, 2012 - By Brande Victorian
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All of you who cry foul whenever a new study points out the “alarming” rates of STDs among minorities may be on to something. A new study by researchers at the Indiana University School of Medicine and the Regenstrief Institute has found that young minority women are screened for chlamydia at a significantly higher rate than young white women, and this discrepancy may contribute to nationwide reporting of higher rates of this sexually transmitted disease among black and Hispanic women.

In the study, which is published in the February issue of the journal Pediatrics, researchers looked at the screening rates for 40,000 young women ages 14 to 25 and found black women were 2.7 times more likely to be screened for chlamydia than white women. For Hispanic young women that rate was 9.7 times higher. Race wasn’t the only thing that led to higher testing rates, though, women with public insurance also had greater odds of chlamydia testing, compared with women with private insurance.

“For some common conditions like breast cancer, white women are more likely to receive a screening test like mammography. For chlamydia infections – which are highly stigmatized STDs – white women are less likely, while minority women are more likely, to receive screening,” said the study’s first author Sarah E. Wiehe, MD, MPH, assistant professor of pediatrics at the IU School of Medicine and a Regenstrief Institute affiliated scientist. “This may mean that providers make judgments about a woman’s likelihood of infection based on her race or ethnicity. Yet in an asymptomatic condition like chlamydia, all sexually active young women should be screened.”
While all women, regardless of ethnicity, were more likely to be screened if they had had previous STDs, the same was not true of women who had been pregnant before. After pregnancy, young minority women were much more likely to be screened than young white women—24 times to be exact for Hispanic women and four times for black women.

It’s definitely true that you always find what you’re looking for, and if doctors are sticklers for testing minority women it’s no wonder they find STDs at the rates that they do. While they’re spending time profiling minority women, they may want to pay a little more attention to what’s going on in white people’s backyards as well. These results obviously don’t take away from the fact that we still have an issue with STDs in our community, but healthcare advocates may need to slow down on making chlamydia and other sexually transmitted diseases “black issues” and start screening white women at equal rates.

Are you regularly asked to be tested for chlamydia and other STDs?

Brande Victorian is a blogger and culture writer in New York City. Follower her on Twitter at @be_vic.

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