Did anyone watch 20/20 last night? transgendered children

Nurses General Nursing

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Specializes in Brain injury,vent,peds ,geriatrics,home.

Last night on 20/20 they were speaking about transgendered children.The one child was born a boy and kept insisting that he was a girl.The family is raising him as a girl.What are your thoughts on this?Do you think there is some chemical imbalance?It was very interesting.

Specializes in NICU.

I watched it. Very surprising to me. I do know a child that is a boy who insists on wearing dresses constantly. Not to school. But during play time he constantly steals his mother's dresses and high heels. He is an only child and until just recently he hasn't had a "father figure." I always thought this was why he acted this way.. 20/20 got me thinking however.

It is sad really. To think of all the ridicule these children are and will be receiving. And what about when they get older? Will they find a life partner?

Specializes in Brain injury,vent,peds ,geriatrics,home.

I know.Its so sad.There has to be some underlying physiologic reason for this.You would think.

Specializes in NICU.

I definately think this is a nature issue vs nurture. These families tried to raise their child as a boy and the boy refused.

I know a boy child who is dressing and acting like a girl all the time. His parents are allowing this, which I think is correct. This is more than an "experiment" on his part. It has been going on a long time. He is not being teased right now because he is part of a progressive homeschool network that is very accepting of who he is.

To me, the real ethical dilemma will occur as this "boy" reaches puberty. There are hormonal treatments and surgeries that the parents could investigate that would make him lead his life more as a "normal" woman, than as a six-foot woman with a prominent adam's apple. Do they act early with professional guidance and the "boy's" consent, or wait until later and let "him" decide.

I tried to tivo it. I got the Yankee game instead. I guess it was replayed at 3:02AM, alot of help that was. I wish it was on youtube or somethin'.

Specializes in LTC,Med surg-Telemetry,alzheimers,home h.

Yep saw it. Couldn't imagine want those parents go through. Can you imagine the boy trying to cut his weewe with a nailcutter?

Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.

i fell asleep long before 20/20 came on. hey! i'm old now. not too long ago, someone on the student nursing forums was asking about gender disorder (https://allnurses.com/forums/f50/help-abnormal-psychology-202930.html) and in doing a search i found some interesting information and a really interesting site called the philadelphia center for transgender surgery (http://www.thetransgendercenter.com/) which had a lot of information. apparently, there is a small percentage of humans that medical researchers are saying are "sexed" incorrectly (as meant in determining the sex of a newborn at birth as being male or female). it is assumed that they are male or female based on the appearance of their external genitalia. basically what they were saying is that just because a person has the outward appearance of being a male or female doesn't mean that everything is internally matching the outward physical manifestations of gender. then, when people begin to get feelings of not being the man or woman they are supposed to be, all kinds of problems ensue. often the solution is transsexual reassignment surgery. they were not at all talking about gayness or homosexuality in the least. it was definitely a gender disorder because these persons have the anatomical and physiological characteristics of both genders. and, i'm pretty sure they were not referring to hermaphroditism. i'm not sure if this is also what is called gender dysphoria (http://www.transsexual.org/).

I saw it and am haunted by the pain the little 10 year old is obviously in. Poor thing- her parents would be doing the twins a favor by moving somewhere and starting over.

I have a neighbor boy- age 16 now- same as my daughter. They have played together since they were 7 and I have to say even then I just figured the kid was gay, but now I wonder. He ALWAYS showed feminine tendencies since I have known him and loved barbies, pink, being a ballerina- and wearing the tutu, there was NOTHING masculine about him at all. He loves girly things and I just assumed he was "born gay" no big deal, except now I wonder- he fits all of the criteria completely.

I wonder if his mom and him were watching the show.

I also have to applaud the families who had the courage to participate in the show.

I love your critical thinking guide for nursing students!

Darn..I missed that show..I love Dateline & 20/20!!

I actually had a biology teacher who worked with world renowned doctors who he was the photographer for when they went to see these babies.

I remember him telling us about this......and apparently the majority (not all, but most) doctors/parents have made the sex of the child a female......and the reason was because it's easier (easier to remove than reconstruct)........He told us (his class) that if it were him who had a child like this that he would let the child decide which sex they were.....He even told us about one child who was raised as a girl (had sex assigned to be female) and the child grew up feeling they were male...and had alot of psychological "issues" due to this.....it was really interesting what he was telling us.............I really wished I got to see this segment!!

Specializes in Peds, PICU, Home health, Dialysis.

I find this type of thing very interesting, especially considering I am extremely interested in Medical Anthropology. From an anthropological perspective, western culture finds this type of behavior "odd" and perhaps even "disturbing" because we have very strict "guidelines" that distinguish and define the two genders (male and female).

Our gender is considered a trait that is culturally constructed, while our sex is biological.

It is not uncommon in other societies for a male (biologically speaking) to take on the role of a female (gender speaking). In fact, in many arctic inuit communities, many "males" prefer to take on the gender of a "female". In cultures such as that, they do not have words that distinguish males from females; and in many of those cultures an individual needs to see another persons genitalia or developed breasts to know for sure whether or not they are encountering a "male" or "female" because they don't have structured genders like most cultures around the world.

It sometimes bothers me that our culture (along with most others around the world) have defined the genders and if a male or female (biologically speaking) choose to take on the opposite gender, they are immediately labled and poked fun of. But unfortunately that is how our culture works and there really isn't anything anyone can do to change that.

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