Medical Daily
Kristin Magaldi
Original Article: bit.ly/1AlejDN
In her recent study on transgender children, Dr. Kristina Olson of the University of Washington boldly seeks to prove transgender association is neither confusion nor pretense, but instead an immediate fixed identification of oneself. By focusing on children, Olson hopes to create an acceptance for children making transgender associations at a younger age, freeing them of any body-related insecurity that results in adulthood and promoting a healthy sense of self.
Olson, who works as a specialist for transgendered youth at Children’s Hospital in Los Angeles, told CBS News that her patients often experience gender dysphoria. She defines this as "persistent unhappiness, discomfort, and distress about the incongruence between the gender that you are assigned, based on your anatomy at birth, versus the way you internally experience gender." Olson’s mission has always been to help combat this, as well as give parents a better understanding of who their children are.
She states in a press release, “Seeing how little scientific information there was, basically nothing for parents, was hard to watch. Doctors were saying, ‘We just don’t know,’ so the parents have to make these really big decisions: Should I let my kid go to school as a girl, or should I make my kid go to school as a boy? Should my child be in therapy to try to change what she says she is, or should she be supported?”
Full text of article available at link below: bit.ly/1AlejDN
