ATTENTION MEDIA & OTHERS SEEKING INTERVIEWS!
If you represent a media company, are a student writing a report or anyone interested in interviewing our visitors, please seek permission (see email address at the bottom of the page) before posting your requests or emailing solicitations for any talk show, magazine, thesis, census or other interview on any message board on this site. If not, your posts WILL be removed. Please respect the privacy of our members.
As we all know, this is a touchy subject here. I hope to the new parents visiting the board, they see an array of "opinions" about this subject, and have the sense to sort it out like they would ANY decision they would make for their child. This is just one decision of MANY all of us will make for our children. Sometimes, we don't make the best choices for our children, and sometimes we do. Show me a perfect parent that has made every perfect choice for their child and I will ask you where to buy the movie ticket, because it only exists in the movies. I respect Christy for sharing her opinion. I am sure like most that object to surgery, her story is painful. And I respect her voice. But do know there are others out there that do have surgery young, and are happy about it. I have read on this board people that have despised the fact they had surgery at a young age, and then there are people that have praised their parents for making this choice at a young age and so on. EVERYONE has a story. EVERYONE. NOt everyone had the same surgeon, same doctors, same family and friends to support them. You never know what their situation was like. Everyone has a story. Take childbirth for example. When you are pregnant how many people come up to you with their horror stories of 48 hours in back labor? Some days I thought they would just scare the baby right out of my womb! The list goes on and on about everyone's experiences and stories and opinions. Did I personally choose surgery at a young age for my daughter? Yes, she was my daughter and I weighed what I thought would be the best for her as her mother. I hope the new parents know there are different severities of effects that CAH has on the genitalia. Everyone should really know that not everyone requires surgery. It really depends on how they can grow into their clitoris. Many do. Some do not. My thought was why put my daughter through that confusion of having a large clitoris to the point she was confused about her gender? Life is hard enough. But that was my own opinion as her parent. The list can go on and on and so could the debate for SEVERAL ugly threads. I think the bottom line is this. Any new parent reading this, take in mind there are MANY stories. Some are negative and some are positive. It happens with all things in life. Your job is to take what you have learned, and make the right choice for your child. If it is leaving her with ambiguious genitalia and letting her make the choice at an older age, then so be it. If it is making the choice now to have the surgery, then so be it. Either way this is YOUR child and no one elses. YOU will know what to do for your child. Imagine if we all had a message board to go to for every choice we had to make for our children. Imagine the million of opinions you would get there? Like, "Should my child have immunizations or is it a real threat to autism? Should I home school my child or is public the best option? Should I use tough love for my troubled kid and send my twenty year old packing?" OH the list goes on. What would you do in those situations? Take what advice you are given and then weigh them in your heart for what is right for your child. So go ahead and take in everyone's opinions but remember, to weigh them within your OWN heart. That is the only place you will truly find the right answer.
