A 17-year-old girl will have her breasts removed so that she can resemble a boy, an Australian court has ruled. The child, who is being called Alex, has been on hormone treatment since she was 13 to prevent menstruation and breast development.

The Chief Justice of the Family Court, Diana Bryant, said it was in the teen's best interests to have the surgery immediately rather than wait until she turned 18. She is said to be suffering from "gender identity dysphoria''.

"In the end, it wasn't a particularly difficult issue because the only real issue was, 'Would he (Alex) have it at 17 or once he's 18?' Then, he doesn't need permission,'' Justice Bryant told The Age. "So the issue was: 'Was there any likelihood he would change his mind in the meantime, and was it in his best interests to have it at that time?'"

Alex has had an incredibly disturbed childhood. She is a migrant from a non-English-speaking country whose father died when she was 5. Her step-father and her mother have rejected her. She has threatened to kill herself if she could not become a boy.

But Melbourne bioethicist Nick Tonti-Filippini said mainstream medicine did not recognise hormone treatments and surgery as treatment for gender dysphoria. US doctors even treat it as a psychosis because "it's a belief out of accordance with reality... What you are trying to do is make a biological reality correspond to that false belief," he told The Age. ~ The Age, May 4; Daily Telegraph, May 4