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)

美联社报道，据《儿科》医学杂志上的几篇报告称，为数不多但越来越多的少年或更小的儿童得到父母和医生的支持，接受变性治疗，因为他们认为自己生错了性别。

三篇报告中的一篇由波士顿儿童医院的史派克撰写，详细记录了1998年至2010年接受治疗的97名儿童，最小的4岁。

低龄的儿童以及家人先接受心理咨询，然后接受观察，直到孩子长到11、12岁青春期首次显现时。然后孩子们开始吃阻止青春期发展的药物。这些药的作用是可逆的。史派克称，药物没有给接受治疗的人带来并发症。

但是这类的治疗引发道德疑虑。一些专家敦促在儿童身上使用阻止青春期的药物和激素时要谨慎。