But there is emerging evidence of potential harm from using blockers, according to reviews of scientific papers and interviews with more than 50 doctors and academic experts around the world.
Many physicians in the United States and elsewhere are prescribing blockers to patients at the first stage of puberty — as early as age 8 — and allowing them to progress to sex hormones as soon as 12 or 13. Starting treatment at young ages, they believe, helps patients become better aligned physically with their gender identity and helps protect their bones.
But that could force life-altering choices, other doctors warn, before patients know who they really are. Puberty can help clarify gender, the doctors say — for some adolescents reinforcing their sex at birth, and for others confirming that they are transgender.
Munchausen by proxy mothers and their can’t-afford-to-divorce husbands should be publicly shamed for this nonsense. A 14 or 15 year-old kid is going to have a better grasp of themselves and should be allowed to decide. Under that age is child abuse.
And vote, smoke, drink, go to war. Why not all the drugs, why just limit it to messing with their body’s natural changes as they shift into adulthood? What if they can grasp that they are someone who really wants to be on heroin?
So, 18? Fine by me. I chose 14 - 15 in anticipation of being called a bigot or some such. I’m sure your response wasn’t meant to be antagonistic, though.
Not towards you, no. But the idea that it is ok for kids to take the blockers and not do the other irks me. Yeah, if they’re adults at 18, they can do all the things
That’d be a good analogy if kids were abusing puberty blockers recreationally I guess… The difference with this is, of course, it’s under a doctor’s care, and the astronomical rates of suicide attempts amongst transgender teens. It’s a tough situation to be in with no easy choices.
Or voting recreationally, going to war recreationally…
Doctors disagree about this, did you notice the OP? not settled science
It’s almost like puberty is a difficult time, especially for people with mental health problems. Maybe fucking with their hormones is a bad idea. Did you catch the OP?
But if you’re dealing with a population that has close.to 50% rate of suicide attempts and some 80% rate of ideation, fucking with hormones might be a great idea. not an easy situation.
Right. Not. Easy. Decisions. Also not black and white. But I can see why (an apparently small percentage of) parents, teens, and doctors might choose somewhat extreme options when it’s feeling like a life and death choice.
Humans have an unfortunate tendency, when given some new-found power, to look around like a three-year-old with a hammer and think “hmm, what can we do with this?”
This story also looks like just another facet of our weird new religion that asserts that whatever nature does, humans can do it better.
Perhaps. I feel it’s logical that transgender teens will feel happier if people give them what they believe they need. How they feel ten or twenty years in the future is another matter.
What isn’t logical is why there are so many more young people identifying as trans now. If it’s because society is becoming more open about trans issues, then why aren’t we seeing a similar phenomenon with older age groups?
Yea I agree. Whatever happened with just accepting reality? Even with the hormones some ‘trans’ just ain’t going to magically become a passable female. And others don’t need to take any hormones, don’t need to skip their teen years or any of that and with a bit of make up and a wig they can easily pass as a female. It is what it is, life isn’t fair. Accept reality and move on.
People these days seem to have a pathological need to fix what ain’t broken. We all know - presumably most of us can remember - how awful puberty/adolescence was. There probably are things that adults can do to make it more bearable, but preventing it from happening is not one of them.
As JP likes to say, life is suffering. Facing problems and learning how to deal with them is the way we become capable, confident, happy adults. Having every problem magicked away by means of a pill is not only unlikely to even work, it’s almost guaranteed to cause a different set of problems that nobody has even thought about.
