"Helping Pediatricians Care For Transgender Children" -Perri Klass, MD
A new statement from the American Academy of Pediatrics tried to guide doctors and dispel myths about growing up with gender identity questions. The term “gender diverse” describes those whose gender identity does not match the sex they have been assigned, or the norms that are expected to go with that assignment. “Gender identity is a brain thing, it’s your sense of whether you’re male or female in your head; it is independent of your body parts, it is independent of who are you attracted to,” said John Steever, MD, director of special programs at the Mount Sinai Adolescent Health Center. “People can have a sense of being male, female, both, somewhere in between, all of these are normal variations,” he said. “Just because they’re not very common doesn’t mean they’re abnormal, and my job is to help patients and parents understand all this.”
- John Steever, MD, Assistant Professor, Pediatrics, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Director, Special Programs, Mount Sinai Adolescent Health Center