A 12-year-old Australian schoolboy who decided to transition into a female has changed his mind two years later, saying that he was suffering from a mental condition at the time.
12-year-old Patrick Mitchell begged his mother to begin taking oestrogen hormone therapy after doctors diagnosed him with gender dysphoria – a condition where a person experiences distress because of an alleged mismatch between their biological sex and gender identity.
However, two years later Mitchell had a massive change of heart.
Independent.co.uk reports: In the beginning of 2017, teachers at school began to refer to him as a girl which triggered Mitchell to question if he had made the right decision.
“I began to realise I was actually comfortable in my body. Every day I just felt better,” he told Now To Love.
As a result, Mitchell confided in his mother and explained that he wanted to transition back into a boy.
“He looked me in the eye and said ‘I’m just not sure that I am a girl’”, his mother explained.
Now, in a bid to revert back to his original body, he has stopped taking his medication and is about to have an operation to remove excess breast tissue in what will be the final stage of his transition.
While gender dysphoria is rare, the number of people being diagnosed with the condition is increasing, due to growing public awareness.
A survey of 10,000 people undertaken in 2012 by the Equality and Human Rights Commission found that 1% of the population surveyed was gender variant, to some extent.
If you think you or your child may have gender dysphoria, the NHS suggests seeing your GP who, if necessary, can then refer you to a specialist Gender Identity Clinic (GIC).
Sean Adl-Tabatabai