According to reports in the medical journal Pediatrics, a small but growing number of teens and even younger children who think they were born the wrong sex are getting support from parents and doctors who give them sex-changing treatments, AP reported.

One of the three reports by Dr. Norman Spack from Children's Hospital Boston details 97 girls and boys treated between 1998 and 2010; the youngest was four years old.

Children that young and their families get psychological counseling and are monitored until the first signs of puberty emerge, usually around age 11 or 12. Then children are given puberty-blocking drugs. The drugs' effects are reversible, and Spack said they've caused no complications in his patients.

But this kind of treatment raises ethical questions. Some experts urge caution in treating children with puberty-blocking drugs and hormones.

(China.org.cn February 22, 2012)

美聯(lián)社報道，據(jù)《兒科》醫(yī)學(xué)雜志上的幾篇報告稱，為數(shù)不多但越來越多的少年或更小的兒童得到父母和醫(yī)生的支持，接受變性治療，因為他們認(rèn)為自己生錯了性別。

三篇報告中的一篇由波士頓兒童醫(yī)院的史派克撰寫，詳細(xì)記錄了1998年至2010年接受治療的97名兒童，最小的4歲。

低齡的兒童以及家人先接受心理咨詢，然后接受觀察，直到孩子長到11、12歲青春期首次顯現(xiàn)時。然后孩子們開始吃阻止青春期發(fā)展的藥物。這些藥的作用是可逆的。史派克稱，藥物沒有給接受治療的人帶來并發(fā)癥。

但是這類的治療引發(fā)道德疑慮。一些專家敦促在兒童身上使用阻止青春期的藥物和激素時要謹(jǐn)慎。