Customer Reviews

As Nature Made Him: The Boy Who Was Raised as a Girl (P.S.)

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This is a wonderfully written book and a fascinating look into the debate of nature versus nurture in the area of gender assignment. Intelligent and insightful, the author draws a compassionate portrait of a family who, faced with a decision in the wake of a tragedy, relies upon the advice of a well-respected doctor, which reliance turned out to be misplaced. The book details the aftermath of the family's fateful decision and the impact it was to have on them all.

In August 1965, Canadians Janet and Ron Reimer gave birth to identical twin boys, whom they named Brian and Bruce. When they were about eight months old, they arranged to have them circumcised due to a medical condition that caused them pain during urination. Circumcision was to remedy the problem. Little did they know that the circumcision for Bruce would be botched, resulting in the loss of his penis.

A plastic surgeon with whom the Reimers had consulted in connection with the catastrophe that had struck Bruce had spoken to a sex researcher who had recommended that they raise Bruce as a girl. Doctors at the Mayo Clinic had suggested that they ought to get a second opinion with regards to that suggestion. The parents then consulted with a doctor affiliated with John Hopkins Hospital, Dr. John Money, a renowned doctor in the area of gender transformation, who had been the driving force behind the then controversial surgical gender re-assignment procedure for which the hospital was becoming known.

In 1967, the distraught parents met with Dr. Money and shortly after, Bruce became Brenda and clinical castration followed. Thus, their child, who genetically and anatomically had been born a boy, was for all extent and purposes now deemed to be a girl. Brian was now on the other side of the gender divide of his identical twin brother, the twin formerly known as Bruce.

Moreover, Dr. Money now had a dream scientific experiment, because he had a set of twins for which the unafflicted twin could act as a control by which to measure the afflicted one. In 1972, Dr. Money disclosed his "twins case" to the medical world, giving a slanted version of the experiment that made it appear to be an unqualified success. Unfortunately, his analysis of the situation did not disclose the difficulties that Brenda was having and her seeming inability to adjust to being a girl.

Apparently, though Brenda had no idea as she was growing up that she had originally been born a boy, she never felt that she was a girl. Years of follow-up visits with Dr. Money for both twins proved to be unsettling for them, as Dr. Money employed somewhat bizarre methods and procedures. Moreover, as Brenda grew older, she would resist additional surgeries and initially resisted the hormone therapy that was introduced on the eve of puberty. Even when confronted with a totally rebellious Brenda, Dr. Money, however, remained in denial about the failure of his experiment. He would continue to tout his treatment of Brenda as an unqualified success.

It was not until March of 1980 that Brenda was finally informed by her father about what had happened to her years ago and what had been decided in light of the circumstances. It was a revelation that was to dramatically change Brenda's life. What followed was a repudiation of Dr. Money's assertions with respect to his treatment. The book details the changes that Brenda was to make in her life, changes that would find her living the life she was originally meant to lead. Brenda would now become David and live the life of a male. Unfortunately, happiness would continue to elude him.

This is a simply wonderful, intimate look at a family that survived a hideous tragedy. It also sympathetically and sensitively details the personal journey of one family through the labyrinthine differences in opinion surrounding the age old debate over nature versus nature. I would certainly assert that nature, and not nurture, controls. This is a very well thought out book on the issue, grounded in the tragic experience of one family. Bravo!

I just finished reading this book about the tragic case of Bruce-Brenda-David Reimer. It was compelling reading, to say the least. Making it worse is learning from the reviews on this site that David ultimately committed suicide two years after his twin brother's possibly suicidal death from a drug overdose (the edition I read was published before both of those events).

The event that set the whole heartbreak in motion was a botched circumcision performed on the baby Bruce, which had been recommended because the twins, as babies, were having trouble urinating. Apparently at that time in Canada and the U.S., circumcision was routine in such cases, although more recently it has been questioned by many medical authorities. This cost Bruce his penis, and it was decided, for obvious reasons to cancel the surgery on his brother Brian. At the time, penis reconstruction surgery was in its very earliest days and outcomes were not promising. Ron and Janet, his parents, young, uneducated, and miserable as a result of the incident, came under the sway of a prominent sex researcher named Dr. John Money of Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Money saw this case as a miraculous opportunity, with a built-in control subject in the form of the twin brother Brian, to prove his theory that sex identity is malleable in early childhood and recommended to Bruce's parents that Bruce's gender be reassigned to female. His testicles were surgically removed, with more surgery and hormone therapy planned for later to complete the process, and Bruce was renamed Brenda. The entire family was required to travel to Baltimore annually to firm up (no pun intended) Brenda's female identity. As the years went on it became clearer and clearer to anyone without an axe to grind that Brenda's female identity, rather than solidifying, was if anything disintegrating. Her school experience was a dismal failure. She had few if any friends. Ron became an alcoholic, Janet sank into a severe depression, and Brian, the supposedly "normal" sibling struggled on with limited parental attention. However, Dr. Money refused to admit the truth and continued to mislead Ron and Janet. The annual visits became more and more disturbing to both Brenda and Brian. Some of Dr. Money's methods were unorthodox to say the least, and in any case, even when he was not showing the children pornography or insisting that they simulate sex acts, he grilled them relentlessly about their knowledge about and views of "proper" male and female sex roles. It all came to a head when the children were 14 and Brenda steadfastly refused to undergo the surgery that was intended to create a more realistic vagina. Although Brenda had been seeing a mental health care team that was committed to furthering Dr. Money's agenda, she now came under the care of a psychiatrist who was more interested in what Brenda wanted. Her parents saw no alternative other than to explain what had happened to her; she decided to reclaim her male identity and took the name David. Things did get better after that, especially with the help of the new psychiatrist. David was clearly more at ease with himself as a male. He soon learned that there had been advances in penis reconstruction surgery and took advantage of that. Although he had an adjustment period during which he was fearful of dating, he ultimately overcame his fears and got married. The outlook at the end of the book was so hopeful. It is terribly sad to learn of the tragic outcome.

The book also discusses the related issue of intersex children, those who are born with ambiguous genitalia. For years these children were subjected to similar invasive surgeries in their early years to preclude any gender "confusion," with similar results to those in David's case.

But the book does leave some unsettled issues: what about transsexuals, who know in their hearts as truly as Brenda did, that their physical sex does not correspond to their true gender? Why must we be so rigid about sex roles, thereby lending credibility to people like Dr. Money who insist that a child's gender must be absolutely clear and unambiguous? Also, it was not clear to me what other choices Ron and Janet had to deal with their penisless baby boy in 1965 when penis recconstruction surgery was in its infancy and outcomes were highly uncertain. When Bruce left the hospital he was catheterized to enable urination. The book does not explain how he, and later she was urinating with neither a penis nor vagina, except to mention Brenda's unusual habit of urinating standing up even though "she" was a "girl." All in all a disturbing, thought-provoking but ultimately unsatisfying look at medical malpractice and our sex-role-obsessed society.

This book is utterly fantastic! I hope that people will read this before making a decision to "correct" a baby's birth defect or surgical accident. It just goes to show that you cannot force someone to outwardly become something that they are not on the inside.

This is such a wonderful book of a sad, horrific story. However, I'm so glad this story was told as it is such a great example of how nature is so very much stronger than nurture and that there is indeed a biological difference between boys and girls. Also, it is so bothersome and somewhat scary that the doctor, John Money, lied about the outcome of this boy's situation to further his own personal thoughts, and his reports were published and taught in the medical community and in universities. I wonder how many minds were tainted by a false report.

John Colapinto, a writer for Rolling Stone has been given the exclusive right to author the tale of David Reimer, who, a victim of a botched circumcision, had his sex reassigned at age two and lived the next twelve years as a girl. David is the victim of several doctors: the one who originally performed poorly at his circumcision; Dr. John Money, who used his considerable influence to convince David's parents to agree to the gender reassignment (and still to this day insists his treatment was a success); and later psychiatrists who, cowed by Money's prestige and influence, persisted in pushing him towards femininity. However, David has overcome. He is a happily married man, a father and a provider who, although still haunted by his unusual past, has come to terms with it and speaks out against the practice of gender reassignment to infants with damaged penises. Unfortunately, it has only been recently that other victims of this practice, members of ISNA (Intersex Society of North America) have been heard by the physicians and psychiatrists responsible for its continuation even today. I was also impressed with the depth of research done by the author, who, as an entertainment writer, was probably unprepared for the difficulty he would face in addressing this rather sensitive subject both with David's friends and family members and with members of the Sex Research community who still insist David's reassignment as Brenda was successful and that the author and his subject sensationalized this book for the money and film rights.
This is an important book for any medical, psychiatry, or psychology student to read.
Edit: I was not aware of David Reimer's eventual suicide until after I wrote this review, and wish to alter my assertion that David is 'happy' and has 'overcome.' Although the book ends on this note, several years later the situation is different.

I have been reading John Colapinto's book for the last few days: a suspenseful, agonizingly heart-rending and gut-wrenching page-turner about a young man who underwent appalling suffering throughout a misery-plagued life. What was subsequently done to Bruce/David Reimer as a result of a botched circumcision that was unnecessary in the first place (more conservative treatment would have remedied his phimosis) compounded exponentially what was already a horribly tragic accident. Bad choices by doctors and his parents were piled on more erroneous choices (all for the wrong-headed purpose of so-called "converting" him into a "girl"), which David only found himself later having to undo -- and only partially successfully (he committed suicide in 2004 in his late thirties after earlier attempts from which he was rescued in his twenties).

To me, the medical lesson is that when a mistake occurs, the parents and doctors should do their best to reverse just that single mistake -- not compound it with further immoral deeds involving additional deliberate mutilations beyond the original accidental mutilation. Two wrongs don't make a right; in fact, they immensely complicate what is already a terrible situation.

I hope both David and his tormented twin brother Brian (who was evidently driven to suicide two years before David) are finally happy in Heaven, and I pray for both of them. I also thank Mr. Colapinto for writing this important book: an object lesson on the harm that is done to innocent people by the arrogance of doctors who play God.

This is a tragic story about an accident of birth. When two twin boys are born, one experiences a problem during circumcision. The parents are not sure what to do and when one doctor steps forward and tells them that although their son can never truly be a boy without a "normal" functioning penis, he makes them believe he can raise their boy as a girl. He can convince this child it is and always has been a girl. This is a true story and is both moving and heartbreaking. A great read that asks questions of the reader without bias.

This book shook me to my bones in the realization of how a physician can affect someone's life. As well intentioned as John Money was and I do believe that he was well intentioned, he let his drive for fame and success cloud his judgment and in turn greatly set gender medicine back. The number of intersexed and transgender children he influenced including myself is profoundly sad! I had to do a long meditation on forgiveness after reading this book, and now I can see the bigger picture of my life and why I did not transition at 17 when I first considered it. Blessings to you John Money on your journey of love, may you find peace.

[Spoilers]This book will make you very angry; that a child could be so maltreated by an "expert," who clearly was in need of help himself, but who was so intent on proving a theory that he disregarded substantial evidence to the contrary. You'll be angry, too, with other professionals who were reluctant to challenge the "great" man even when their own evidence pointed in an opposite direction. But you'll be astonished and satisfied by the incredible fortitude of a young child who realized that something was wrong and in his own way stood up to the extraordinary pressure that was put on him.

David Reimer was the victim of numerous mistakes. The first was a botched circumcision that essentially fried his penis. Then he became subject to the attempts of a famous sex researcher to verify his theories about the nature of gender development. The result was a lot of pain for David and his family.

Colapinto got permission from the family to write this book, and all conversations, everything in quotes, is from transcripts or documents. All the scarier.

It all began when David (then called Bruce) and his identical twin brother Brian were diagnosed with a condition called phimosis that circumcision normally repaired. Bruce was operated on first, but a serious mistake in the voltage levels of the electrical surgical device was made and his genitalia burned beyond salvage. The medical staff suggested that Bruce be raised as a girl. This was at a time when feminist theory, supported by some psychologists, proposed that gender identity had nothing to do with biology: it was all a social construct. Eventually, the parents were referred to Dr. Money at Johns Hopkins University. Money was a world-renowned sex researcher who apparently suffered from a multitude of sex hang-ups himself. Money had staked his reputation on the belief that sexual identity was socially determined, and he had worked with numerous transsexuals. When Bruce's parents showed up with an identical twin who had no male genitalia, it was an obvious answer to his prayers, for now he could develop data from a twin study to validate Money's theories. Money and his colleagues at Johns Hopkins had performed numerous sex reassignment surgeries on hermaphrodite children, but no such operation had ever been attempted on a child born with normal genitalia and nervous system, a distinction that the parents, Ron and Janet, never grasped until years later. Money's conviction was the procedure would be successful; "I see no reason why it shouldn't work," he told them. The decision had to be made early, because, according to his theory, there was a gender identity gate at which point the child was locked into a male or female identity. Bruce became Brenda and was raised as a girl. There were problems from the start, but Money insisted he was right and continued to promote the case as an example of the correctness of his theory of psycho sexual neutrality at birth.

In the meantime, at the University of Kansas, a young researcher was studying the role of hormones on behavior, and in a paper published in the late fifties, he marshaled considerable evidence from biology, psychology, psychiatry, anthropology, and endocrinology to argue that gender identity is hardwired into the brain virtually from conception. Hermaphrodites had an inborn neurological capability to go both ways, a capability that genetically normal children would not share.

The researcher, Milton Diamond, was to become a thorn in Money's side as he marshaled considerable evidence of the role of prenatal hormones in determining gender identity. Money's accusation that Diamond's alliance with unscrupulous media caused the cessation of what would have been the culmination and piece de resistance of his life's work, the twin study, finally pushed Diamond to a public response in the form of a paper. Money's work was still being used to support the behaviorist proponents in the psychological community, who were still trying to "convert" and "change" adult homosexuals back to a heterosexual orientation. In the meantime, Money had been uncharacteristically silent what was occurring with the twins. Diamond managed to track down the psychiatrist,Keith Sigmundson, who had been working with Brenda/David in the intervening years. Having seen firsthand the implementation of Money's theories, Sigmundson, after reading Diamond's papers and convincing himself of Diamond's research integrity, agreed that something needed to be documented publicly as to the outcome of the case.

By this time, Brenda had become David, reverting to male, and had married. His parents, after years of therapy for the whole family, had finally broken with Money, and told Brenda of the genital removal. David had married and wanted to put everything behind him, but finally agreed to meet with Diamond. Realizing after their conversations that his case was being used as evidence to support the implementation of Money's theories in other cases, he decided he had to speak out. The resulting paper warned physicians of the dangers of surgical sexual reassignment, especially for intersexual newborns, since "physicians have no way of predicting in which direction the infant's gender identity has differentiated." Assigning a sex, i.e. name, hair length, and clothing, was one thing, but irreversible surgical intervention had to be avoided until the child was old enough to determine and articulate. "To rear the child in a consistent gender, but keep away the knife," was the caveat expressed by as Diamond to Colapinto.

One of the more interesting side issues I think the book raises is the nature of authority, i.e. what constitutes being an expert. Certainly, being right, correct, and knowledgeable appears not to be criteria.

This book was a heartbreaking story, but written very well. Colapinto was extremely thorough and talked to so many different people involved. I was surprised that a nonfictional book could be so easy to read and engaging. On other note, it is awful to see doctors get away with publishing "research" that is based off of half-hearted optimism and high hopes, rather than the truth. I am so glad the true details of this case were brought to light. I would recommend this book for anyone. I am not interested in psychology nor have I ever read anything about sex changes, etc. but I found it very interesting simply because I am interested in people and want to gain knowledge.