Has anyone read As Nature Made Him: The Boy Who Was Raised as a Girl by John Colapinto?


If you have, I would like to hear your opinions of the book


If you haven't it is the true story about a boy who was raised as a girl, then at 14 started to, again, live as a boy.

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Nutella,....
proving some of the best things in life come in a jar.

I had to read it for college a few years ago. I thought at the time, it was a good book, very interesting topic.

I am assuming that it is the story of David Reimer. The storyline was on TV last night. Are you bothered by the topic? Is that why you started this thread? If indeed your book is about David Reimer, then I can't say enough about how badly I feel for that family. According to the story I saw, he was born in 1965. Yes, we knew comparitively little about mixed gendered childfren in 1965 but this was a bungled circumcision. Dear God, I hope someone strangled the Dr that did that to a child.

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Lyn Clarke

Yes, it is the David Reimer story and Yes, I am VERY bothered and wonder why "Dr" Money is not in prison. ("DR" Money is the one who "treated" the twins while they were growing up)


My heart just aches for this entire family. I wonder how many other stories are out there like this during that time that no one knows about.

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Nutella,....
proving some of the best things in life come in a jar.

Dr Money is the psych Dr who suggested that David be raised as a girl. Unfortunately, in the 60's, the attitude was that you just assigned a kid a gender and the kid would adapt. Of course, the theory didn't work and you have egomaniacs like Money who would not back down and admit his error. As a nurse, I have seen lots of transgendered kids--where the child has sex organs that are indeterminate or mixed. The adviced was that the parent name the kids a neutral name like Dana, Jodie, Fran which could be either male or female until the testing was completed. It was not until the late 70's when there was a lot more information available about sex assignment and gender. It is a travesty but there are a lot of people who were and are affected by this problem.

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Lyn Clarke

I have not read the book. But I was intrigued by what you all posted here and I did a search.
For anyone else interested, here are a couple site articles to read:

David Reimer - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Why did David Reimer commit suicide? - By John Colapinto - Slate Magazine

This is so, so sad as well as tragic on a few levels. What this family must have endured!

I might check this out of the library this weekend.

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l/ l/ l/
Dont go through life,
GROW through life

Real eyes...realize...real lies.

Dr Money faked the results of tests that showed David and his brother as well adjusted to the situation THEN he showed them inappropriate movies and photos and had inappropriate conversations with them.

In my opinion this man should be in prison.


On another note: My heart really goes out to families of transgender kids (not that David was transgender, just commenting on lynclarke's comment) and the ignorant stigmas they have to put up with.

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Nutella,....
proving some of the best things in life come in a jar.

My DD is now 16 and has a condition called Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia (CAH for short). As a nurse lynclarke might have heard of it. It is a very serious medical condition, as this is a hereditary medical condition that DH and I had no idea of the recessive gene that we carried. Anyway, she is missing an enzyme that controls part of her adrenal function. The "physical" side of effect, is that through all the various hormone functions necessary to live, her body also received mega testosterone prior to her birth. When she was born she had ambiguous genetalia, and was proclaimed a "boy" although they could not find testicles..did an ultrasound..they found uterus and ovaries.

Thankfully, they suspected something, and although we had named her a boy, around day 3 we were told that they truly did not know what sex she was, and she was transported to a nearby NICU. She stayed there undergoing tons of tests, and chromosome tests. It wasn't until day 7, when her body went through adrenal shock, that the condition was confirmed and we were told that she was genetically a female. She was placed on replacement meds, needed for life, and has had two genital reconstructive surgeries, the first at 8 months old, and the next one was at age 8, when she was suffering alot of bladder infections, and had to have more surgery to fix the internal urinary problems she incurred.

She has been a "hard to hormonally control" due to the constant ups and downs of hormone levels, also developed insulin resistance, and now is suffering the physical side effects of the androgen (sex hormone) excesses. She doesn't have any breast tissue, has not started her period, has a deep voice, and has alot of facial hair to contend with. I do feel for her.

But her condition is always under the list of "intersex" conditions, from the ambiguous genetalia side effect although she is genetically a female. I am well aware of Mr. Money and his bizarre beliefs. 20/20 did an episode in 1996 with my daughters condition on it, and we were on it. It is a potentially life threatening condition as mostly boys, who do not suffer any outward physical signs at birth, and undiagnosed girls, who go home and suffer fatal adrenal crisis and shock within the first two weeks of life.

I've known many people who lost their child from this, and those who were caught in time, rushed to hospital and treated and saved.

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Eileen

**Some people are like Slinky's, not really good for anything, but you can't help laugh when you see one tumble down the stairs**

Wow Eileen, thank you for sharing your story. It is through stories like yours that we can all become sensitive to people with these medical conditions and their struggles. Then we can teach ourselves, and our children, not to judge.

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Raising my baby RIGHT!!!!!!

All the cool babies are wearing cloth!