Pubertal delay as an aid in diagnosis and treatment of a transsexual adolescent.

Early cross-sex hormonal interventions (that is, between 16 and 18) as a treatment for young transsexuals are often considered to be risky. However, the delay of such treatment until after the development of secondary sex characteristics has obvious drawbacks for transsexual individuals. This paper reports a postoperative follow-up case-study of a female-to-male transsexual who was treated with a combination of an LHRH agonist (which delayed her secondary sex characteristics development) and psychotherapy at age 13, and subsequently underwent sex reassignment at 18.