Replies to '10/29 Gender Confused Children'

I'm 34 years old, and was born with a sexually ambiguous genteic makeup (47XXY.) I always felt like a girl growing up but was never verbal about it. Growing up, kids and adults teased me. "You act like a girl, you talk like a girl, you wear makeup, etc..." I played with any toy I was given because I was poor. I wasn't given girl toys but I did want Barbie and all the Cabbage Patch dolls but again wasn't verbal about it. At the age of 10, all the redicule I was getting from people drove me to a state of not wanting to live...so i wrote a letter to God wishing to die. My mother found the letter and took me to a child psychiatrist.

It was a rollercoaster ride from then on.

I went from child psychiatrist to family doctor to geneticist.

I was put on male hormone replacement therapy at the age of 13 for life but rebelled at 15 and stopped at 21. During the 10 years of being testosterone-free, my goal in life was to become a woman. I never dressed as a woman per say (except when going out at night) but some people addressed me as ma'am because of my appearance, voice, and mannerisms. I was even hit on by men but I never showed interest.

To make a long story short, I saw your show on confused gender identity disorder kids and agree with the man in the audience with glasses to an extent. Children should NOT be put on any type of hormone therapy until they are old enough to decide for themselves because HRT is irreversible. I feel that hormone therapy is necessary for children with life threatening issues. My situation wasn't life threatening, it was at the time medically standard and deemed "a better way of life".

I regret taking HRT because I hate my body now and eventhough I am not on any type of hormone, I know that I can never blend in as a boy or girl.. I try so hard to blend in but they wont let me. I identify as intersexed now .

I know people think I'm gay but there is a difference between sexual orientation and sexual identity. I've never been in a relationship, dated, been to a dance...nothing. Do I regret it? No...but I do regret my body being hormonally altered just to fit the society we live in's standards of what is deemed male and female.