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   It is wise to seek council from many voices especially on the topic of children experiencing gender dysphoria.  The professionals here seem quite biased toward a medical solution to for this family’s child.  They seem unaware of what is going on in the UK and the unwarranted medication of children:

The following account documents the experience of a family who attended a one-hour appointment at SickKids Gender Clinic in Toronto where they were told their daughter was a good candidate for the puberty blocker Lupron and would be able to start receiving the injections at the next appointment.

Yet here in Canada we seem to be all gung ho for medical intervention, as opposed to the more conventional and safer watchful waiting approach.

Sick Kids Gender Clinic Review

Several years ago, our 14 year old daughter advised us that she was transgender and wanted to be a boy.  Over the next several months – although often requested – she did little to elaborate on her feelings or any other information on how or why she felt this way.  Our family doctor counselled her a few times and she saw one psychologist once and a psychotherapist approximately three times before we sought out a referral to the gender clinic at Sick Kids hospital in Toronto.

Approximately one year after our daughter had suddenly begun to identify as a boy, we attended Sick Kids Hospital. We filled out a survey as did our daughter asking questions about our daughter’s childhood. We had an interview session with a physician and a male student observer as a family for about 30 minutes. The context that we gave to the counsellors during our portion of the session was that we felt that at least one of our daughter’s peers had greatly influenced this transgender epiphany.  Further, she had recently been seeing a psychotherapist that was coaching her on what to say to Sick Kids to get hormone treatment right away.  Our daughter had disclosed this to us after the third visit with this therapist.  Lastly, her gender dysphoria had come about suddenly with the onset of puberty at age 14 with no previous indication of gender identity issues.  Our daughter denied all of this during this interview. 

We were asked to leave and our daughter then spoke with them without us for another 15 minutes. After that, we were invited back into the room and advised that they could not disclose what was discussed citing confidentiality but that our daughter did in fact have gender dysphoria.  Further, they considered her to be a good candidate for Lupron but they could not give her a prescription until we had blood work done and the mandatory 3 month waiting period was complete. They handed us a lab requisition form for the blood work further stating that on our next visit they could administer the hormone blockers if the blood work was done.  

We asked to speak to the counsellors in the absence of our child so we could express more detail about our concerns without upsetting, alienating or damaging our relationship with our daughter. They refused, stating that the confidentiality was with her, not with us and whatever we said to them without our daughter present they would just tell her anyway so we might as well say it in front of her.  We questioned the safety and hastiness of the drug administration.  We were advised “the sooner the better” and that Lupron simply puts puberty on hold and is fully reversible, which we knew is not entirely true. They commended us on our knowledge of the hormone blocker Lupron but totally ignored our concerns and minimized the risks. 

We left the hospital shocked at the outcome. Not feeling that a one-hour long interview with a child and ignoring all parental input and concerns was sufficient to start on a course of hormones.  We never returned to Sick Kids hospital. 

Our daughter is now 17 and continues to identify as transgender, but has not expressed any desire to take any sort of medical intervention since our visit to Sick Kids. She continues to function well emotionally, socially and academically.  She has close friends with which she socializes outside of school, works part-time and is on the honour role. 

The recent surge of gender activism has not given Canadian society enough time to properly examine many issues surrounding the transing of children, or even the efficacy of taking cross sex hormones and the medical commitments and downfalls that come part in parcel with trying to change your sex.