Harvard Health Content API

More children are seeking support and treatment for gender identity disorder, new research finds. These children are at high risk of psychological illness, the articles say. The journal Pediatrics published the articles. One reports that Children’s Hospital in Boston is treating 19 patients a year for gender identity disorder. This compares with about 4 per year in the late 1990s. In a commentary, a doctor from Galveston, Texas, reports a similar increase. Treatment includes counseling. Children also can take drugs to stop puberty from occurring. Later, they can get hormones for the opposite sex. This can continue until they are old enough to decide whether to make the change permanent with surgery. The Boston study took a close look at 97 patients. Before entering the program, 45% had been treated for a psychological disorder.

Not only are women with heart attacks less likely to have chest pain than men, but those without this symptom are more likely to die, a new study finds. The difference was especially strong among younger women. Recent research has shown that women and men may have different heart attack symptoms. The new study provided more information. It used records from 1.1 million heart attack patients. They were seen at U.S. hospitals between 1994 and 2006. About 42% of women and 31% of men did not have chest pain or pressure. Nearly 15% of women died in the hospital, compared with 10% of men. The average woman having a heart attack was 74, compared with 67 for men. But younger women, under age 65, were 24% to 30% more likely to die in the hospital than men the same age. Both men and women were more likely to die if they did not have chest pain.