Ten-year-old becomes boy with operation in Turkey

DİYARBAKIR – Anadolu Agency

AA Photo

A 10-year-old child in the southeastern province of Siirt, born with a fertile female genital organ as well as a non-functional male genital organ, has become a boy through a series of operations, after having been raised as a boy.

The boy, identified only by the initials R.Y., underwent a sex-change operation after permission was received from the Gender Research Commission.

R.Y. was taken to a local health center in Siirt when he was two months old, but no final diagnosis was given as to his sex. The family did not take any further action and raised the baby as a boy, saying they feared social pressure. After changes in the boy’s body started recently, the family applied to a private hospital in Diyarbakır.

Prof. Dr. Abdurrahman Önen, pediatric urologist, said R.Y. had female genital organs inside the body, and also a non-reproductive male organ. Önen said that if a diagnosis can be made before the patient is one-year-old they could probably make a small operation over the female genital organ and turn the gender of the baby into a fertile female.

However, the commission and the boy’s family agreed to make him a male through an operation on the grounds that he was raised as a boy and would feel like one for the rest of his life.

R.Y.’s father, identified as S.Y., said they had left the treatment of their child too late, and called on all families not to neglect their children’s treatment in such cases, despite all social pressure.

Önen said he had made operations in a number of similar cases, which are diagnosed very late in Turkey.