A German boy, believed to be the youngest sex change patient in the World, wants to bring forward his final operation by two years. The child, originally named Tim, started hormone treatment at the age of 12 after persuading doctors he wanted to live out his life as a woman, and changed his name to Kim.

Kim is currently 14 years old. Under German law, the final operation cannot take place until Kim is 18, however she wants to have her final cosmetic surgery to remove male genetalia by the time she reaches 16. This would mean either a change to current German laws, or travelling abroad for the surgery.

Kim has kept a piggy bank since the age of 5 and has filled it with loose change to help fund the operation, although all costs so far have been met by the German health service because her condition is classed as an illness.

As a child, Kim would dress up in his older sister’s clothes and played with Barbie. She would also tell her parents “I’m a girl”. When Kim’s father realised Tim was serious, they started calling her ‘Kim’ at home. Throughout, Kim’s parents have been incredibly supportive, particularly when they realised that Kim was getting distressed at the thought of being like other transsexuals with large hands and deep voices because she felt they looked silly when they dressed as women.

Germany has at least 6,000 transsexuals under permanent medical treatment as adults. Gender identity disorders are not that rare and many manifest themselves when the child is able to speak. In about a quarter of children, the disorder will go away naturally. With the rest, the majority become homosexual. There are only a handful of child transsexual development experts in Germany. Kim’s family are in contact with one of them – Dr Bernd Meyenburg who is head of identity disturbances in children at Frankfurt University. Talking about Kim, Dr Meyenburg admits it’s a bit of a dilemma. “If we do something about it, it’s irreversible,” he explains. “And if we allow nature to take its course, that too is irreversible. However, it would have been a crime to let Kim grow up as a man.”