Pink News saying puberty blockers are “well studied, safe and completely reversible”?

Like others, I have been treated with Zoladex (goserelin) for endometriosis, a drug very similar to Lupron. It was comfortably the worst 3 months of my adult life. It completely messed with my brain generating huge levels of anxiety, completely foreign to me as a healthy, resilient adult.

In grown women with gynae problems, these drugs are only licensed for 6 months use in a lifetime, and are banned for under 24 year olds because they haven’t finished growing. This is because they demonstrably decrease bone density leading to life long problems with ostopenia, amongst other potentially irreversible effects.

The cognitive dissonance between these drugs being “harmless and reversible” for growing teenagers vs the caution and restrictions around their administration in adult women is astonishing.

I'm curious, how would you all react ifjumping out of an aeroplane at 40000 feet without a parachute was found to be safe?

I’m curious, how would you all react if they were found to be safe?

How could they be found as ‘safe’? There is already a class action building for one of the drugs for use for precocious puberty.

Please do tell why you think the results would be different? What are you basing this on?

Do we have any evidence that the Cass review has not been captured?

I am very much looking forward to the Cass Review.

My impression is that the findings will not be favourable for the GIDs.

So, that's going to be challenging for Mermaids et al.

How I wish the smug fools who claim these extreme drugs are safe would be forced to take them and see just how 'harmless' they are.

I had the misfortune to be given Lupron for endometriosis and it was easily the worst few months of my life. The side effects are horrendous.

I took it as an adult and only for a short period but my consultant was absolutely clear that it could cause irreversible loss of bone density.

To give it to children for up to three years is incredibly reckless.

How can they give anyone a chance to think when they turn you into a zombie who can barely function - let alone make important decisions?

I accept that they might be useful in the case of people facing deadly cancers but apart from that they should be banned.

Surely if they give a child a breathing space to get its head into a better space then that is a good thing, right!

One minute trans kids know their gender at 2/3. We hear of all these extremely smart articulate toddlers who want to know when God is going to fix his mistake and make them a vagina/penis.

The next minute they suddenly need extra time at 11/12/13 to figure out their trans identity.

Which is it?

They are not well studied. 'Puberty blockers' is a misnomer, 'growth stunting drugs' would be more accurate.

They have been used for in the past for women with endometriosis and occasionally girls with precocious puberty. These patients would take the drugs for up to 6 months at a time. There is evidence that side effects in children include:

• Arrested brain development
• Emotional dysregulation
• Bones not fusing properly
• Damage to cartilage and connective tissue which leads to damage to internal organs further down the line
• Lack of muscle development
• Liver & kidney damage

Additionally in grown women:

• Brain fog and cognitive dysfunction
• Chronic pain
• Chronic fatigue

Worth repeating that these were sife effects observed in 6 months of taking them (they were only ever designed for short term use). There is evidence of gender distressed children being on them for years. Jazz Jennings was on them from age 7.

• Migraines

I’m curious, how would you all react if they were found to be safe?

Safe as in the child isn't disadvantaged in any way (including developmentally or psychologically in the long-term) by taking puberty blockers and delaying the onset of puberty, or safe as in its worth the risk for the psychological distress they prevent in children who have been given a reliable diagnosis of gender dysphoria which can't adequately be explained by examining other factors?

As with most medical treatments, nothing is ever 100% safe and patients need to be informed of the risks (of which there are usually many even for bog standard treatments) before consenting.

The condition puberty blockers seeks to treat is gender dysphoria. We won't know until after the Cass Review. But if the diagnosis of even one child diagnosed as having gender dysphoria and offered puberty blockers might be better explained through an examination of societal attitudes to gender stereotypes and homosexuality, and of the child's own understanding of gender roles given their personal background and any possible neurodevelopmental conditions, rather than their sense of gender identity being a psychological condition requiring medical intervention, then these factors and alternative explanations should obviously be taken into account when weighing up the relative risks of potentially life-changing treatment in the context of informed medical consent.

@BoredOfSamphire

And I have decided to take your user name personally!

How very bloody dare you!

I'd like someone to explain why anyone thinks this is a good idea.

Puberty is responsible for maturation of the brain as well as the body.

This is a crucial point. The only 'benefit' of puberty blockers is that they enable the child to get to a point where they're considered to be competent to choose medical intervention by virtue of their age, even though they haven't actually gone through the development processes that would give rise to that competency.

Stop bloody posting I'm curious

I AM BLOODY CURIOUS - or I was before I became a dinosaur

And how does a child get their 'head into a better space' when they are kept in a perpetual childlike state? Puberty is responsible for maturation of the brain as well as the body. And what is it going to do to their mental wellbeing when they are still childlike while their peers grow into adults?

<a class="break-all" href="https://archive.md/www.thetimes.co.uk/article/transgender-children-puberty-blocking-drugs-for-the-past-four-years-i-ve-been-stuck-as-a-child-5s6tkh7z2" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">archive.md/www.thetimes.co.uk/article/transgender-children-puberty-blocking-drugs-for-the-past-four-years-i-ve-been-stuck-as-a-child-5s6tkh7z2

I’m curious, how would you all react if they were found to be safe?

"Safe" isn't sufficient. You actually have to have a benefit that outweighs the cost. The cost is delaying development - even if you can delay development "safely", how do you ethically justify that?

You need to point to a clear benefit, and there seems to be none.

There are many things we could "safely" do to a child that we do not do.

Surely if they give a child a breathing space to get its head into a better space then that is a good thing, right!

There seems to be fairly solid evidence that they actively prevent a child "getting its head into a better space" - the rate of resolution of gender dysphoria is much higher without puberty blockers.

You also have to acknowledge that current indications are that the medication currently prescribed is not ‘safe’, and for some has life limiting side effects.

Obviously people will argue that gender dysphoria is life limiting, but arguing that on balance puberty blockers are the better option for some is very far from claiming that they are safe and the effects are reversible.

I’m curious, how would you all react if they were found to be safe

You seem to think they are safe. Evidence shows that they are not. I'm curious to know how you would react in the knowledge that they are not safe.

However, there are ethical questions about how they can be tested on children.

These should be acknowledged, not down played.

Why do you think they are safe?

What would convince you that they are not safe?

How do you think this breathing space works?

What does this mean, to get a child's head into a better space?

So they haven't been researched that way. They have been used on younger kids who have a specific disorder, a specific need. Used differently, with a different end result in mind.

If they did what Pink News insists, with no supporting evidence, then there would be little outcry. Not least because they would be being used in an informed manner, licensed for the specific use with specific guidlenies and end results in mind.

But all we do know comes from those who desist and find themselves in an unalterable state of being. And the drugs don't remove the feelings of discomfort, suicidal ideation.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/stories-51806011

www.persuasion.community/p/keira-bell-my-story

You may be working from the premise, much touted by many TRAs, that gender critical women object to the very existence of transgender individuals. This simply isn't true, it's just a handy stick with which to beat us.

We are not anti trans.

We are pro women and kids.

Of they cares about trans kids they'd want this properly looked into and not just yell transphobe at anyone who is watery of giving toxic cancer treatment medication to kids witg healthy bodies

Why would they care about kids??

They're an online magazine - they care about clicks and retweets. That's it.

They don't give a shit who buys what or who does what, as long as they make money out of it through talking about it. When the winds change and interfering with children's puberty isn't fashionable any more, they'll make their money from vilifying the same people they're quoting as experts now.

Pink News aren't the problem as they're effectively a blogging site (assuming they're not subject to journalistic principles of accuracy, etc?) - it's the governmental departments with duties of care to these children who should be held to account.

Pink News is actually helpful as it shines a light on the worrying things that medical practitioners are saying when they're among supporters of pathologising gender identity.

I’m curious, how would you all react if they were found to be safe?

Surely if they give a child a breathing space to get its head into a better space then that is a good thing, right!

Or are you against them on principle?

@eurochick Testosterone - is that really a treatment for pcos? well I’ve had PCOS for many decades and it’s NEVER been suggested and in fact quite the opposite is true in that women with PCOS often have too much testosterone.

What sort of person thinks that it's a good idea to pause puberty in children, which means that they wil age chronologically but still have the bodies and brains of children?

We need to think carefully about the possible motivations of non-trans people who are promoting this treatment.

rockysretreat.com/early-spay-neuter/