Around the country there has been a huge spike in children seeking medical treatment to change their gender, but for transgendered kids in the Northern Territory the options are still bleak.

Darwin boy Benji Raebling, 17, is just like any other teenager — he wears baggy jeans, a t-shirt with his favourite band on it, and has short blonde spiky hair. The only difference is he is transgender.

"I kind of knew all my life… But at first I thought it was something I could ignore," he said.

"But I quickly learned it's not something you can ignore, it's like this is who I am. It's in my bones."

Ben was named Harmony when he was born but battled with identity issues his whole life.

"I got things that I knew weren't mine. I was confused," he said.

"I went through puberty and that was… tough. I just always felt like I was in the wrong body."

By the time Ben turned 15 he had fallen into a deep depression.

On several occasions his mum had to take him to Cowdy, the psychiatric ward at Royal Darwin Hospital.

After one particularly bad episode he pleaded: "I'm not mad mum, I'm just a boy."

It was at this moment that single mother of six Ginny Raelbling began to accept that her daughter was trapped in the wrong body.

"I realised I had to let my Harmony girl go, but I was scared," she said.

"I was scared of what would happen to her. But I came to the understanding that I had to let Harmony die to keep Ben."

When Ms Raebling turned to her local GP for help she was severely disappointed.

"Just to get a trans child to a doctor is a big deal, but to have him react this way is inexcusable," she said.

The self-harm rates for transgender youth like Ben Rabeling (left) is high. ( Supplied )

She went to the doctor thinking there would be systems in place that would prescribe what to do with transgendered children.

"So we're sitting down with the doctor and he just went wide-eyed," she said.

"He then looked him up and down, literally, from top-to-bottom and went, 'oh well I don't know'."

After seeing five different GPs, Ms Raebling reluctantly came to the realisation that there were no health services here for children who identify as transgender.

"The decision to leave Darwin wasn't easy, but the only thing that would stop Ben from trying to commit suicide was my promise that I would help him become a boy," she said.

"Because he is a boy. He acts like a boy, he thinks like a boy, he looks like a boy. And I need to help him to become that boy."

Self-harm rates 'extremely high'

Darwin GP Dr Danielle Stewart shares Ms Raebling's frustrations.

"We know the suicide and self-harm rate for these kids is extremely high," Dr Stewart said.

"It's not clear at all what we as GPs should be doing when a young person comes to us and identifies as transgender.

"The specialists in Darwin at the moment aren't familiar with managing transgendered young people, and at the moment people are needing to go interstate to have that process undertaken."

But Northern Territory Health Minister John Elferink does not believe there is sufficient demand to require any change to the current system.

"If you choose to live in a part of the world where services are limited by virtue of the fact that it's a small population over a large area, which precisely is what the Northern Territory is, then your not going to get all of those services that you would expect to see in Sydney or Melbourne," he said.

It is hard to know exactly how many transgendered children there are in the NT because the Health Department does not keep records.

But compared to other capital cities the treatment options are bleak, with families often having little choice but to travel interstate.

However despite the move to Brisbane for services, once in the system Ben and Ginny face up to a two-year wait to go before the court system to have their case heard.

Now, the family is also considering going to Thailand for treatment.

"Ben is an adult in six months, why would he wait for the Australian system?" Ms Raebling said.

"We as a family are going to Thailand to get his testosterone, because we are over this system, this system does not support transgender children, and it needs to be resourced because children are at risk and it shouldn't happen".

Wherever Ben goes to get his treatment, he knows one thing for sure — when he finishes Year 12 he wants to study medicine so he can one day help other transgender children.