PHOTO GALLERY A seventeen year-old makes the transition from Adina to Ayden. Follow some of the important milestones in her journey. LAUNCH PHOTOGALLERY

Seventeen year-old Adina Scheim from Toronto is becoming a boy named Ayden. Ayden is willing to go to great lengths to alter her female body - her sex - to correspond with her male self image - her gender.

Ayden recently began taking testosterone. Her voice has started to deepen - an irreversible physical effect of the male sex hormone. Ayden says she would have her breasts removed if she had the money to pay for it.

Ayden: "I didn't know what was making me unhappy. I knew I was utterly different from everyone, but I couldn't pinpoint it. It took me a long time to actually figure out what I was. I want to be someone who can walk down the street and be seen as a guy."

A troubled childhood
Ayden is sure she wants to become a man, but convincing her parents is another matter.

Her father Phil Scheim, a prominent conservative Rabbi: "She's a brilliant girl. She could have pursued any career she wanted. But now I think she's really limiting herself to a marginal element in society and that's hurtful."

When Adina turned thirteen, everything about her seemed to change.

Although Lori Scheim is trying to support Ayden, their relationship is tense.

Her father remembers: "At that point I went through a grief process - we were basically mourning. We were grieving the loss of the child that we had - that was our fantasy child."

Her parents are now divorced. Her mother Lori Scheim recalls a child who was always troubled and defiant.

Lori Scheim: "Nothing in Adina's/Ayden's upbringing has been normal, simple or straight. There was a lot of conflict."

Toronto's transgendered community
Ayden has been living on her own for a year now. She isn't interested in remembering the past. Ayden is only looking forward.

She's found another family and another way of life in Toronto's gay and lesbian community. It's where Ayden met Evan, her role model. Evan has already had breast reduction, he says he is not considering genital surgery.

Evan: "I don't really identify as male. I sort of identify as - maybe non-gendered or both genders or more than both genders."

Ayden participated in this years Gay Pride parade. She has been accepted by Toronto's transgendered community.

A weekly testosterone shot is something Evan must endure if he wants to maintain his masculine look. Ayden: "Evan was the first trans person I ever met. It's been really neat to actually have someone who I can like, monitor their progress and get an idea of what it's going to look like for me."

Ayden's journey into manhood started two years ago when she started to change her appearance, wearing boys clothes and binding her breasts.

But the first step towards a more permanent transformation began when Ayden started taking the male hormone, testosterone.

Family physician Leslie Shanks is the Medical Director at the Sherbourne Health Center in downtown Toronto. Shanks is shocked by the number of patients, like Ayden, she has seen since her clinic opened a transgender program a year and a half ago.

Leslie Shanks: "Right now we have about 180 people in this practice. I think what's important is that it's becoming more accepted in some communities and that's a good thing."

International guidelines
Although the numbers are hard to pin down, some experts say that one in five hundred question their gender. That is not to say they all want to have a sex change.

For those who do, gender identity experts have agreed on a minimum set of guidelines. They suggest three months of psychotherapy and living as the opposite sex for a full year before considering surgery. But these guidelines are just recommendations. (see the guidelines )

Ayden - excited to be receiving testosterone - phones a friend with the good news.

Taking testosterone and planning breast surgery
Seventeen year-old Ayden doesn't need her parent's permission to get her first shot of testosterone. After five visits with Dr. Shanks at the Sherbourne Health Center, all she had to do was sign a consent form.

The testosterone will deepen her voice and redistribute her body fat. She'll start growing facial and body hair. Some of the changes will be permanent, like the deepening of her voice.

She's making an appointment with a psychiatrist and hopes to get a letter recommending breast surgery. As soon as she can afford it, she plans to go ahead with the surgery.

Ayden: "I could make the same decision at 25 and regret it at 40. There's always a chance you'll make a decision you'll regret. If that causes you not to do it, then you're never going to do anything."

Although her parents - and most gender experts - suggest that Ayden take more time to consider her decision, she is determined to move forward.

Ayden's father suggests caution
Ayden's father, Phil Scheim, thinks she's too young to be making such an important decision. He's even tried to bribe her, offering to pay for her breast surgery, if only she would put it off a while longer.

Phil Scheim: "Maybe if it were five years from now. If she were older and she didn't have her history of having 'flavour of the month' syndrome when it comes to her identity. It's just too soon, too quick."

"I would say that I'm appalled, but that wouldn't capture the sense of feeling that a kid is able to make a choice like this without parents being consulted."

Ayden is unmoved by her parents concerns and by stories of sex changes gone wrong.

Hana Gartner: "You're only seventeen. You can't vote. But you're doing something you can't change. This is for the rest of your life."

Ayden: "People who don't understand it are either going to tell me that I'm wrong or their going to just accept that they don't understand. It's not their life. It makes perfect sense to me."

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