Hormone treatment of gender identity disorder in a cohort of children and adolescents

Hyde, Zoë

doi:10.5694/mja12.10911

Topics

To the Editor: I welcome the article by Hewitt and colleagues,1 but their protocol is problematic. Suppression of puberty improves mental health and general functioning, but not body image and dysphoria.2 For this, cross-sex hormones and/or surgery are the only effective treatments.2

Department of Sexology, Curtin University, Perth, WA.

Correspondence: zoe@sexologyresearch.org

Competing interests:

No relevant disclosures.

1. Hewitt JK, Paul C, Kasiannan P, et al. Hormone treatment of gender identity disorder in a cohort of children and adolescents. Med J Aust 2012; 196: 578-581. <MJA full text>
2. de Vries AL, Steensma TD, Doreleijers TA, Cohen-Kettenis PT. Puberty suppression in adolescents with gender identity disorder: a prospective follow-up study. J Sex Med 2011; 8: 2276-2283.
3. Olson J, Forbes C, Belzer M. Management of the transgender adolescent. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med 2011; 165: 171-176.
4. World Professional Association for Transgender Health. Standards of care for the health of transsexual, transgender, and gender nonconforming people. 7th version. http://www.wpath.org/documents/Standards%20of %20Care_FullBook_1g-1.pdf (accessed Jun 2012).
5. Spack NP, Edwards-Leeper L, Feldman HA, et al. Children and adolescents with gender identity disorder referred to a pediatric medical center. Pediatrics 2012; 129: 418-425.
6. Hembree WC. Guidelines for pubertal suspension and gender reassignment for transgender adolescents. Child Adolesc Psychiatr Clin N Am 2011; 20: 725-732.

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