Leo's story - a dreadful account of the damage puberty blockers do to children

We have been banging on about this on here for YEARS.

This needs an enquiry. It should never have happened. How many children have been harmed by this bullshit?

It's absolutely heartbreaking. At least people are waking up.

I've been on these boards for about seven years, and at the very beginning of discussions about this issue, Lupron was cited as a drug that gives you bone density problems.

A mumsnetter, herself, had taken it, and it had practically ruined her life.

The issues have been known about for years.

The pushing of transgenderism as something to aspire to, is criminal, in my opinion. And it should be immediately outlawed in schools.

Furthermore, and I can't say this enough, research into not just the physical effects of puberty blockers, but the mental impact needs to be implemented.

You can't talk to individuals about how they're feeling at 20 after having taken puberty blockers, and now on cross sex hormones, when they're still thinking and feeling like a 10 year old, but don't know they are.

All of this in the name of kindness and acceptance. Those poor children, their lives will be shortened and full of pain and medical intervention. Why the fuck is this allowed? And you still have people in schools promoting this and trying to keep parents out of the loop.

What struck me in the documentary was the arrogance of the idea that we can just stop puberty and then artificially manufacture conditions within the body that will enable a child to develop into an adult without any negative ramifications.

And the majority of the various clinics in Sweden dealing with vulnerable young people seem to blithely deny that they have any concerns of any kind about treating these patients. So no great surprise that the parents of 'Leo' were talked into agreeing to it.

Balint named that the collusion of anonymity a long time ago.

factors contributing to the establishment of the collusion of anonymity – a situation where the patient sees a number of doctors, but nobody takes responsibility about the important treatments and decisions.

www.asociatiabalint.ro/english_reports/THE%20COLLUSION%20OF%20ANONYMITY.pdf

Via CBBC, the BBC effectively runs advertising for the GIDS by recycling a clip in which Dr Polly Carmichael is interviewed about PB and describes them in terms of a pause button.

BBC + NHS + nice Dr Polly = a lot of authority.

mobile.twitter.com/newsround_blog/status/1151821906707984385?

Discussed by Helen Saxby:

notthenewsinbriefs.wordpress.com/2016/04/07/bigoted-or-brave-a-response-to-cbbc/

I just watched the whole documentary - thanks for the link upthread, NecessaryScene

Absolutely shocking. An 11-year old put on puberty blockers, with no follow-up whatsoever, kept on them for longer than the recommended time, develops serious physical and mental problems, is in constant pain, and when finally scanned, proves to have osteopenia and spinal injuries as a result of off-the-chart bone thinning.

Then the clinicians and administrators interviewed all try to wriggle off the hook by blaming each other. On camera. And the majority of the various clinics in Sweden dealing with vulnerable young people seem to blithely deny that they have any concerns of any kind about treating these patients. So no great surprise that the parents of 'Leo' were talked into agreeing to it.

The couple of thoughtful, clearly very worried and troubled clinicians interviewed stand out as beacons of sanity but as for the rest…..good grief.

Feeling you have no choice is not the same as not knowing though. I think that's what gets me the most. The claims that no one apparently knows anything.

Now either everyone has forgotten anything they have ever learnt re safeguarding and child development or someone somewhere has an ulterior motive and is being enabled by people with full knowledge of said enabling.

You may not be able to stand up against it. But you can stay quiet. What you shouldn't do is just lie and pretend you had no idea.

Apart from anything else when the shit hits the fan like its doing, those lies will be proven as lies amd used to discredit you meaning that the children end up with nothing. No compensation. No apology etc

I agree. Parents are told that they are doing the right thing. And the fear suicide.

The treatment might actually make things worse in many ways but the narrative has been telling parents that they need to ‘affirm’ to do the right thing for their child.

@Whatwouldscullydo We plausibly agree on more than we disagree.

I would point to Helen Webberley's tribunal as a reason for some parents not to be able to judge what is inappropriate and what is in the vanguard of medical advancement.

It found at the time of the allegations, transgender healthcare was "an evolving medical discipline" and opinion among experts was divided.
Tribunal chairman Angus Macpherson said: "The tribunal finds that the reluctance of the Endocrine Society and others to embrace enlightened views of transgenderism is symptomatic of the tendency in all professions to be slow to move with the times.
"This inertia in respect to medical attitudes to transgenderism mirrors past attitudes to homosexuality, which was classified by the APA as a mental illness until the 1973 edition of their DMS."
Mr Macpherson said Dr Webberley may have been considered as being "at the vanguard" of the evolving approach to transgender healthcare.
He said at the time of the allegations there was "immense pressure" on the NHS England Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) and some service users were "left in a state of desperation" so it was "hardly surprising" some patients sought out Dr Webberley as an alternative.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-61213539

Macpherson is showing remarkable empathy to parents there.

A Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service panel found 36 allegations to be proved, but 83 others were not.

I certainly can't call what the tribunal's final recommendations will be.

I realise that probably sounds harsh. But that's exactly what the drs/clinic's are doing. Pretending they had no idea. Preventing the ability to exchange information. I mean look that the apparently surprise that a child takes drugs to prevent development has no development and the conventional surgery cant be done..its so dishonest. I think they child at the very least deserves the parent to be honest even just that once.

I think that is both addressing some of the main difficulties and setting aside some of the substantial social pressures that are brought to bear. We see women (and some men) losing their jobs and fielding complaints to their employers. We see people having to go through legal proceedings. We see people lose family and friends, shunned by colleagues, attract widespread and high profile social condemnation and opprobrium for expressing a GC opinion or stating the material reality of sex

But you'd still know and be easily able to find out that a dr/clinic etc was little more than a fraud.

You can be aware if the social pressure and hell even give in to it. But don't pretend you don't know and it's all some big surprise.

That's dishonest. To pretend you had no idea. Take responsibility. Your child deserves that much

How long do we give parents the benefit of the doubt? The information is a 2 secind Google away. There are plenty of YouTube videos of transmen who are very open about the complications
…
This generation of adults for whom we have to do this thinking for them is another huge worry.

I think that is both addressing some of the main difficulties and setting aside some of the substantial social pressures that are brought to bear. We see women (and some men) losing their jobs and fielding complaints to their employers. We see people having to go through legal proceedings. We see people lose family and friends, shunned by colleagues, attract widespread and high profile social condemnation and opprobrium for expressing a GC opinion or stating the material reality of sex.

We're living with preference falsification, societal wide versions of Lifton's 8 Criteria for Thought Reform, and our version of Solzhenitsyn and Havel. Havel's observation feels relevant to distressed parents and other adults who've abdicated their thinking.

In an era when metaphysical and existential certainties are in a state of crisis, when people are being uprooted and alienated and are losing their sense of what this world means, this ideology inevitably has a certain hypnotic charm. To wandering humankind it offers an immediately available home: all one has to do is accept it, and suddenly everything becomes clear once more, life takes on new meaning, and all mysteries, unanswered questions, anxiety, and loneliness vanish. Of course, one pays dearly for this low-rent home: the price is abdication of one’s own reason, conscience, and responsibility, for an essential aspect of this ideology is the consignment of reason and conscience to a higher authority.

www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4382551-Live-not-by-lies-Solzhenitsyn-no-tambourines-involved?

But....but.....they are just a 'harmless pause'......

Jesus Christ this is just so fucked up. These poor children.

I think parents are susceptible to claims from their children (and supporters) that rely upon the "Better a live son than a dead daughter" or vice versa rhetoric

But even when the very talks by people who believe this, are available on you tube for all to see, and are very clearly completely absent of anything beyond stereotypes and over investment of a toddlers sexuality, you do have to wonder.

The very fact that they sought fit to even Google any if it in the first place because the male child wanted barbies to play with is included in said talk.

How long do we give parents the benefit of the doubt? The information is a 2 secind Google away. There are plenty of YouTube videos of transmen who are very open about the complications.

There's a whole TV series that follows what has visibly unfolded into a horrific situation that is impossible to remotely paint in a positive light.

This generation of adults for whom we have to do this thinking for them is another huge worry.

A relative had been told that she should have her cataracts done by an optician.

She has read up so much about the ops, watched videos (🤢) and knows so much about them. She has booked a second opinion and has a raft of questions.

She is very methodical and is doing her research.

Dear god people seem to be making life changing (and potentially disasterous) decisions with less due diligence than they would make when choosing a new doormat.

We put more thought into a new fridge than the healthcare of our children.

That might be true of some parents but I'd expect it to be a relatively small number.

I think parents are susceptible to claims from their children (and supporters) that rely upon the "Better a live son than a dead daughter" or vice versa rhetoric.

www.bayswatersupport.org.uk/mum-as-story/

This is one thing I really struggle with. You see on MN all the time. Every time someone heeds a new car or car insurance or a new fridge or baby formula or even about shopping at aldi.

Post after post about how one company makes the same product so don't fall for marketing as they are making bigger profits on effectively the same item. Everything traced back to source and the financial benefits to manufacturers akd policy makers etc all out for so many other factors than just providing a service

But no one connects the dots between drs making money from.medicatiok amd the inner circle of people who are set to profit.

We put more thought into a new fridge than the healthcare of our children. Never see the ulterior motives akd the profits akd other reasons

tbh, I'm not at all clear as to what has happened.

But it is the postscript to Leo’s story that raises the biggest question mark over the rush for puberty blockers.
He has been taken off the blockers and, as a result, his body has turned back to being a girl’s with all the signs of puberty you would expect.

If Leo has experienced menopause, that's a misleading description as I'd expect menarche as a sign of puberty in addition to secondary sexual characteristics.

If Leo has been through an (accelerated) female puberty, then I can see supporters using that argument for 'PB as a pause' and they'll assert that, with research, there can be a protocol for dealing with everything else (I'm not saying this is feasible but it will be used as a rhetorical device).

Tok right the mum should feel responsible. Her job was to be honest with her child and get them the help they needed (but get swept up in the drama - she was ‘so proud!’ - yeah right?).

Try out some new fashionable ‘treatment’ on her child?? What could possibly go wrong? What did they think would happen? I assume the child’s life is now full of pain and exhaustion. And will probably be shortened as a result of this experience that should never have been allowed.

I genuinely think this is a huge medical malpractice scandal. Just utterly atrocious.

Essentially, the poor girl reached menopause before she'd even started her periods. In females, the sex hormones are powerful protectors and drivers of bone growth and strength. That's why post-menopausal women are at far greater risk of developing osteoporosis than men are: once the oestrogen diminishes, the gradual loss of bone density, that begins in the mid 30s, greatly accelerates.

'Perhaps it is his mother who is now suffering the most from what has happened. She feels responsible for what Leo has gone through and finds it impossible to forgive herself: ‘I am the one who should have protected my child, but I did not do that in any way.’

Every medical professional should've protected the child.
Such damaging drugs are being given to children with perfectly healthy bodies, because doctors are scared to be called phobic, or worse, because they are being paid to push an ideology. All based on nothing but a child's feelings of an unprovable, entirely subjective thing they call a 'gender identity'

Every single person who blindly goes along with this shit is responsible for the damage being done to these children.

Totally agree with what happened to “First do no harm.” I’m incredulous that some so-called “medical professionals” have been colluding in this. Those poor children.