Is sixteen too young for a sex change?

Good for her. It's certainly not up to me or anyone else to dictate how she wants to live her life.

At 16 I wanted quite a few different things & wanted to be a musician that is minor compared to this, but if the person in question has undergone all phycological tests & is fully aware of the implications that it occur then yes but wait till the age of 18 before any op in order to see if they change there mind.

seems a little silly to me.

It's obviously not too young to have serious mental issues.

"It is a condition that one is born with but which you cannot operate for until they are 18 years old," said Mañero.

"That, for a doctor, is something of a shock. No one could imagine that if your child was born with, say, leukaemia, we would say we must wait until 18 before operating."

I take great offense to this statement. You're going to have the gall to say having a sex change operation is on par with cancer? If you're not feeling that you are the right gender, it is a condition that you are not going to die from. It may cause you psychological stress, but it is not the same as having an incurable condition that you will live with for the rest of your life.

Shame on him. I expect better from a doctor.

I think that the individual is too young for a sex change. This is a major decision for a 16 year old. I believe that the parents, just wanted to pleased their son. I think that once the sex change is completed. The boy, now a girl, should go to therapy. The transistion is not going to be easy. What is going to happen when she goes back to school?

If you're going to do it, you might as well do it early. If he wants to experience life as a girl, he may as well get some high school years out of it, not to mention have it all "done" by the time he enters the adult world (aka, "getting it out of the way).

Since the body is not fully developed at 16, yes it is too young and dangerous!

Really I feel like I could say so much here... but really it all comes down to is, yeah he's too young. 18 is only 2 years away for him.

I believe this operation should remain at 18 years, some people I know went through this operation. Some now regret doing it for whatever reasons, they were all over 21, one is considering a "reversal" operation. Also, a person is still a minor until they turn 18 and be more mature about such decisions involving sex change. Keep the legal age for sex change operations to over 18's

One can not give a one size fits all answer. Some kids at 16 are more mature and together than the average 40 year old. And there are plenty of immature adults who act like kids.

In this case I trust the kid, the parents, the judge, and the numerous psychiatrists and physicians who all agree that in this particular case, it is the right thing to do.

Clearly this is not an individual going through a phase, or experimenting (which is healthy). This is an individual who has known since age 8 that something was desperately wrong, and has gone to great lengths, and jumped through many hoops, to make changes in her life.

I wish her well..

As i child i had gender issues and wanted and thought that i was a boy, however before i was 16 i had grown out of this, it seems to me if this young man still feels the same way he did when he was a child, then a sex change operation is for him, however i feel society places too many expectations and limitations on certain genders, so much so that a person similar to the man in this case, would feel like they need to have a vagina to be fully a woman, at the end of the day he will never bear children, and a woman changing to a man will never impregnate a woman, but each to their own, whatever makes someone happy

any age is the wrong age for a sex change.

The brain and body aren't fully developed, until like 21, so why tinker with what was given you? You could do more harm than good changing how wonderful you were created.

First I want to say that this child should be slapped(HARD) Sometimes I wonder what kind of world I live in when it's accepted that "ANYBODY" gets a sex change let alone a 16 year old boy. What do his male friends do now? Shake his hand or hug him lol. The world becomes even more complicated... smdh

the thing is.... therapy is required for a long time before they just snip. and in this case therapy should be required till they turn 18. just physically speaking a person should probably BE DONE WITH PUBERTY before re-assigning their gender. i 100% think that people should be allowed to make this choice and i highly doubt that he is just a confused teen. that said, i have met more than one man that was once a woman and unless they were VERY strong personally and emotionally they didn't come out of it golden. there was a lot of anger and a suprising ammount of it was directed at those who had stood beside them through the whole thing. this is NOT to say that this goes for everyone. my point is that at that age i would have had a very hard time making such a transition and every effort should be made to build up this boy's self esteem before during and after. because no matter your body- you are who you are inside.

A condition that one is born with? That shows an amazingly primitive grasp of the human mind and body.
I don't think that 16 is too young for an actual sex change, but it's definitely the youngest I'd allow. This "an 8 year old knows what it wants to be" is a load of rubbish spouted by an ideologue for his cause who;s so stupid he'll end up hurting it more than helping it. The transexuals there need a new president.

i thought i had ideas about what i wanted to be when i was 10, and then i thought i knew what i wanted when i was an 18, im 32 now and i dont desire the same things i did when i was a kid.

it sounds like this kid is in alot of pain and conflict (several suicide attempts) it sounds like he needs try to work things out, i dont like shrinks, thier job is to tell you have a problem and sell you drugs, i think a sex change is a horrible idea period.

if your not happy with your self, how is emulating the opposite of your self going to help you? and if you have convinced youself that thats the only way, you are simpily destroying your temple.

if you feel sexual/gender confusion then perhaps sexual relations are NOT suposed to be a part of your life.

and lastly you will lead a life of lies, lying to yourself, lying to your friends, lying to your lover, lying to everyone that lays eyes on you.

what do you tell your husband when you gont get pregnant? ohh by the way im a guy... sorta...

i wish you and your family well, hope you find peace in life, peace comes to you, the more you try to force peace the more elusive it is

Ignoring the basic issues of being 16 and not knowing what the hell you want in life... This kid shouldn't have a sex change for the basic fact that his body is still growing and maturing. He should wait, at the very least, until his body is done going through puberty.

This isn't a question of sexuality, this is a question of gender. Sexuality is fluid and can change over time, but you will be hard pressed to find someone whose gender identity changes as fluidly (I'm looking at you, Kate Bornstein) This girl knows what her gender is and what her sex should be, and since she's already taking hormones she most likely has had counseling, and adding on the risks of suicide, its obvious that this surgery would help with her gender dysmorphia. I thought teenagers at 16 could have plastic surgery under parental consent, why not this girl? Besides, some have said the younger the onset of hormones and surgery the better the results as far as body issues.

Sorry hell0everything, but there's a difference with being confused and actually understanding that something is different about you than everyone else.

If you actually would have been a lesbian, you probably would have realized that early on in your childhood. You would have known that there was a disconnect with what people expected you to be and what you actually felt.

While I think that this is a major surgery and a major decision to make at 16, that doesn't mean that individual is too young in this situation. It would take a lot of courage and commitment to make this transition and, even at 16, this is not something that would easily be taken lightly.

I think the real knowledge regarding this would come from the greater transgendered / transsexual community and finding out when they understood those feelings of disconnect within themselves.

For gay/lesbian/bisexuals it is not uncommon for these people to know from a pre-puberty age their sexual attractions. From transsexuals, it would be interesting to find out when they had their operation and how satisfied they were with their decision.

Without knowing or experiencing these feelings first hand, it's easy to assume that 16 is too young. Probably the best part of this article is that there is family support---how wonderful!

This article needs to have its pronouns fixed. If the teen in question identifies as female then she needs to be referred to as such, even if she hasn't had her operation yet.

Yes, it is too young, and absolutely ridiculous.

Teens often question their sexuality - they may be sure they are gay one day but it may change a week later. The fact that kids in college change majors pretty much cancels out the notion that "An eight-year-old child knows already what they want to be and what they do not want to be."

People don't even fully develop their personalities until they are about 30. Being a transsexual is one thing, but running out and getting a sex change at 16 is another.