Nine is much too young to pick a gender

IN OUR time, thanks to revolutions in social attitudes and medical practice, it is more and more common for people to express doubts about their sexual identity.

Perhaps such doubts have always been more prevalent than we realised. Perhaps they are in some cases exaggerated or encouraged by a culture in which old gender boundaries have grown increasingly vague. Whatever the reason, they are taken more seriously and seen at earlier ages than was once the case.

While some reject the modern view that those who believe they were born into the wrong body have an objective illness which can be treated with drugs and even surgery, even sceptics recognise that many such people do seek this treatment, and are often glad of it when they get it.

But the most open-minded person must be concerned when children as young as nine are prescribed potent drugs which delay the onset of puberty. Children are full of powerful passions, fears and enthusiasm. Some of these last into adulthood, others flourish for a while and then vanish.

It is not always easy to tell which is which, and wise parents, teachers and doctors, confronted with these emotions, are cautious. Prescribing body-altering drugs to children considered too young to take almost any key legal decision is impatient and rash.

Leaving aside the question of the unknown long-term effects of this medication, might not these drugs actually confirm and set in concrete a desire which might have faded away in time? Might those who take them, in later life, regret embarking on this course which once seemed desirable, but does so no longer?

This is a delicate and difficult subject, and most of us instinctively shy away even from thinking about it. But even the most tolerant and open-minded will surely conclude this is an intervention too far. Nine is far too soon.