Teen pop star reveals secret sex-change surgery

Teen pop star reveals secret sex-change surgery

news.ninemsn.com.au

A 16-year-old pop singer's four-year transformation from "Tim" to "Kim" is finally complete after a secret sex change operation.

German teen Tim Petras underwent the surgery last November and is believed to be the world's youngest transsexual, Britain's Daily Mail newspaper reports.

She is now speaking out about the final hurdle in gender transformation.

(visit the link for the full news article)

I am not sure what to make of this story. Is it purely for publicity and sensationalism or is this a legit case of being 'born with the wrong body'?

It is one thing if he was born hemaphroditic and a choice had to be made, but to have had to convince psychologists that he needed the surgery is just wrong by my books.

I am suspicious of the motives considering

Petras, who studies fashion design, was signed to a German record label last year and released her first online single "Last Forever".

It became a sensation on Myspace and Facebook.

So...Is this a blatant publicity stunt or a necessary change?

news.ninemsn.com.au
(visit the link for the full news article)

Since it involves a celebrity, I am going to take a wild guess and say it's for publicity.

But since I haven't done much research, that's only a guess and I could very well be wrong.

If it's true, that's really risky... 16 is super young for a transgender operation.
I think that it's a perfectly okay thing to do, but I would probably have urged a wait until at least the 20s when the body is finished growing.

reply to post by VIKINGANT


I am not myself a transsexual but since many of my friends are I will tell you this:

A legitimate case of TG is never done for publicity. It's a very difficult position for the person to deal with--there is so much shame involved, and physical and emotional pain when it comes time to make the transition.

I do not beleive it to be anything more than a mental disorder--for some reason the "mental" and "physical" gender do n ot match up. There should not be any shame for that.

Not everyone who is TG choses to have surgery, but I can understand the logic of some who want to do it early. Remember the younger a human body is, the more resiliant it is.

Remember that TG is different that transvestitism and homosexuality. These people are not just acting unusually femenine/masculine, depending on what the physical gender may be--they are acting according to their actual gender. So for the person with TG there is really not a question of "Am I actually the opposite gender, am I going to regret this?"

That being said--I am assumign that the kid is not trying for publicity. He may be, I don't know him personally, but those are some of m y thoughts.


Edit--I may be wrong but I beleive that 16 is the legal age of conscent in Germany so it's up to him to have the surgery.

[edit on 4-2-2009 by asmeone2]

Asmeone2 said it right. That said, I know many transgendered and Transsexual people too, and even a -hold on to your hats- 15 year old Transsexual that had her operation at 16. Still, I wouldn't really lable it as the "youngest Transsexual", as it is not too uncommon with 12-year olds on selfstarted hormone-therapy. I guees though that they meant the youngest that had full surgery.

Still, I have to wonder; Wasn't Amanda Lepore 15 when she had her "job" done?

I completely understand what you are saying, but my issueis the age first of all. Some people may genuinely think that they are trapped in the wrong body but I think that he should have been encouraged to wait a little longer and underwent further counciling.

Another thing I am concerened about, is, as you mentioned, this is a mental disorder. Most disorders are dealt with by trained proffesionals in order to try and make the patient "normal" or as close to as possible.

As an extreme example, if someone was diagnosed as a psychopathic killer they are locked or medicated or helped in whatever way possible. They are not given access to people they can kill to satisfy thier "needs"

I am not saying TG people should be locked up or otherwise, just not so readily encouraged to carry out thier desires

Originally posted by VIKINGANT
I completely understand what you are saying, but my issueis the age first of all. Some people may genuinely think that they are trapped in the wrong body but I think that he should have been encouraged to wait a little longer and underwent further counciling.

Another thing I am concerened about, is, as you mentioned, this is a mental disorder.

The idea that Transsexualism is a mental disorder, is a old delusion in the Medical field, from lack of proper research and understanding in the area in the older days. Nowadays, it is known within the Medical Community, that Transsexual Male to Female-patients, often have brains that is physically equal in their shapes to that of a female brain.
Also, a syndrome called Kleinfelders is not unusual amongst Transsexualls. Kleinfelders is in actuallity a type of Intersexualism, and describes a possession of one or even two extra X-chromosomes, instead of just one.

So again; Transsexualism is NOT a mental disorder.m

[edit on 4-2-2009 by Nightchild]

ViKINGANT:

Most transsexuals will tell you that they always knew something was wrong, but it took a while for them to come to the concept of being the worng gender, and even longer to come to a point where they could admit that to friends and family. There is such an aaspect of shame involved that many tansexuals hesitate to change their presenting gender after they know what is going on with them.

Male-to-female sex change operation requires the amputation of the penis, so I'd say this isn't a publicity stunt.

And when I said mental disorder I meant it in the context of, this is not something that they can choose to stop, just like it would be absurd to tell an autistic or clinically retarded child to "just act normal."

reply to post by Leto


Lol...we don't live in the middle ages. No. as far as I know, nothing gets chopped off. Everything from the outside is reconstructed into the inside. Nerves and all. But the nuts gotta go. There you're right.

To tell the truth by the picture alone I would say that she would have fool me.

She is beautiful as a girl.

Interesting that I actually believe that many people are born in the wrong body for their mental gender and deep inside them can feel trap.

I can only imagine of the struggles of those that are not so lucky to afford a transformation.

I cherish my womanhood and I can only imagine how could it be to be in a male body feeling like a woman.

I hope she is happy and be able to fulfill her life dreams.

Believe or not is easier for a man to become a woman than for a woman to become a man, as you can not reconstruct what is not there.

Be careful guys!

It's a trap!

Old news rocks, where were you in 2008?

Seriously. How come this reaches out to Ninemsn now when it's been out the closet since last year... atleast

reply to post by MacDonagh


Not really, TG m2f still have adams apples. i will say i found out the hard way. i will also say no details are available at this time

but i have two TG friends, and honestly, these are really women, for whatever reason got born into male bodies.

As for the poster who mentioned the extra x chromosone, i myself have this oddity, and i'm a dude. always will be too. just because this chromosone is present, does not mean that the individual will feel like a female in a dudes body.

Love and Peace

Its not a stunt. She really is a girl who just happened to be in a male body.

They are getting closer to understanding how the hormones a fetus is exposed to causes changes in the physical body and in the brain.

Some people really do end up having a mismatch.

www.nhs.uk.../What-is-it.aspx

In rare cases, the hormones which trigger the development of sex and gender may not work properly on the brain, gonads and genitals, causing variations between them. For example, the sex (as determined physically by the gonads and genitals) could be male, while the gender (as determined by the brain) could be female. This could be caused by additional hormones in the mother's system, or by the foetus's insensitivity to the hormones, known as androgen insensitivity syndrome (AIS). In this way, gender dysphoria may be caused by hormones not working properly within the womb.

And anyway, you all start out as female, so whats the big deal that she wanted to go back?

To begin with, all unborn babies are female, as only the female sex chromosome (X chromosome) inherited from the mother is active. At the eighth week of gestation, the sex chromosome inherited from the father becomes active, which can be either an X chromosome (female) or a Y chromosome (male).

Alright, well i wasn't going to weight in on this thread, for fears of it turning into a witch hunt with religious people but i can see the need to respond.

I am a big advocate of gay/transexual/transgender rights, and understand they're pain and they're struggle to understand and be who they are.

But in all seriouness, 16 IS NOT old enough to know that you want to change your body for the rest of your life. This could be a simple case of Identity Crisis created by stress from this girls' career.

And where are her parents in this matter?

Anyway, i think pre-op procedures would have been just fine until this person was old enough to comprehend the severity and permanence of these actions.

Duplicate, sorry mods..plz remove.

[edit on 2/4/2009 by tothetenthpower]

reply to post by tothetenthpower


I think she is old enough to conscent in Germany.

We don't know her personally of course, but the TG people I knew understood that they were the wrong gender very early in their lives, like 5 or 6, sometimes earlier.

If she has the money and she is sure, that is her decision.