to think no one could support transing children after reading this

[naivetyisthenewblack]

Putting this in AIBU instead of feminism as it's a response to Butterfly, the mainstream ITV drama that seems to be supporting the idea that puberty blockers are safe / a good idea.

But, puberty blockers are far from safe. That we're giving them to kids is a massive scandal that will explode soon enough.

I challenge anyone to read this and explain why giving kids these drugs instead of counselling is a good idea.

www.transgendertrend.com/puberty-blockers-safe/

Did you know, for example, that kids taking blockers may never have a functional sex life?

We know very little about the capacity for sexual pleasure in a natal male who proceeds to genital reconstruction after puberty blockade. But we know for certain that blockers reduce libido: they are after all also used to chemically castrate sex offenders.

18 year old poster-child for transition, Jazz Jennings is very public about having never had an orgasm at 18.

We're creating a generation of sterile, asexual people with underdeveloped genitals. Why are we doing this? This isn't therapeutic. This is setting them up for a lifetime of misery.

I was horrified when I watched this, with their message being puberty blockers put "a pause on things giving children time to think". Very dangerous on mainstream TV

I would say any article circulated by a well known anti-trans group is likely to be biased.

To accept the information I would need it to come from somewhere more neutral.

Also - did you know blockers inhibit brain development by as much as 8 IQ points and can cause brittle bones.

This is all so the kids can pass. It's style over substance. Prioritising them fitting into society's sexist stereotypes above their health and well being as a functioning adult human being.

WFT is going on here?

Stompythedinosaur the article is sourced. Follow the sources and make up your own mind.

This is not an anti-trans article.

This is an article from a mum of a GNC kid who's raising the alarm on what's going on.

I haven't read it yet but the point is made over and over again that transactivists push very hard for children to get blockers and go onto cross-hormones, possibly also having surgery of various kinds, but they are also adamant that adults can be trans with no medical treatment whatsoever. This doesn't add up.

Thanks for posting this.

It is frightening stuff.

I hope the next episode of 'Butterfly' will show how puberty blockers are neither safe nor sensible.

Why not listen to Jazz? Jazz is 18, has never had an orgasm.

"Grandma, do I look like a sexual being?"

Jazz's penis was a child's penis. Because of blockers and hormones, Jazz has never matured into a sexually functional adult. In order to have sex reassignment surgery. some of Jazz's colon had to be used IIRC as his penis was too small to create a neovagina.

Do you really think this person will have a functional sex life as an adult?

IMO giving kids any sort of medicine for anything other than an actual illness is so wrong. by giving these children these hormones they might as well fly a flag that says "hey, your feelings and views are an illness, here take a pill for it"

I think its shameful the way adults try to pursue their own agendas on this issue.

there needs to be counselling support, support to live as a different gender and help to come to a positive decision when they are adults. not chemically cosh them and make them believe they are sick by giving them a pill. they aren't ill.

From the same article:

Children do not have a ‘self’ that can be uploaded onto the iCloud for downloading into a different body later on. The changing brain, moulded by surges of hormones, by thoughts and feelings and behaviour, creates a new self that we cannot envisage – no parent can predict how their child will change at puberty.

The ‘most dramatic change during those years happens to the prefrontal cortex, the area of the brain involved in high level cognitive functions such as decision-making, planning, social interaction and self-awareness. MRI studies show that this region undergoes quite dramatic change during adolescence.’ If puberty-blocked sheep take more risks does that explain why adolescents on puberty blockers will risk their future sex lives?

When we block the surge of hormones that create the adolescent brain we invent a new kind of human being: cosmetically perfect but lacking sexual and reproductive function.

When a puberty-blocked Jazz Jennings asks her parents whether an orgasm is like sneezing and interrogates her father about how much of her mother’s vaginal canal he can see, we know that Jazz is not an adolescent. Jazz can only imagine being the object of the male gaze.

She plans to provide a sexual service because she has no access to sexual feelings of her own. This isn’t a new openness about sex but a young person who has not separated from their parents. When we offer our kids the same medicines which are used to chemically castrate sex offenders something has gone badly wrong

I haven't read it yet but the point is made over and over again that transactivists push very hard for children to get blockers and go onto cross-hormones, possibly also having surgery of various kinds, but they are also adamant that adults can be trans with no medical treatment whatsoever. This doesn't add up.

It is scary, so scary.

I watched some American plastic surgeon programme where a boy had transitioned into a girl when he was quite young. When he was old enough for surgery his mum took him the for gender reassignment consultation but the surgeon sent him away because there wasn’t enough there to turn the penis into a vagina. He had taken hormones which meant his penis didn’t develop properly so he was left with an underdeveloped penis and no hope of a vagina.

And who benefits? Drug companies are always looking for something which people start taking early then have to stay on, ideally for life, or with something else to go on to. It's like we learn nothing from all the previous drug disasters, things which turn out to be addictive or cause so many side effects that they need even more drugs to manage the effects.

It seems like the medicalisation of yet another normal part of life in this case all the questioning and feelings of not fitting in that are a normal, healthy part of adolescence.

He had taken hormones which meant his penis didn’t develop properly so he was left with an underdeveloped penis and no hope of a vagina

This is going to happen more and more when you have fucking irresponsible lobby groups like Mermaids and TV shows influenced by them telling parents blockers are safe and just a "pause" button.

It should be child abuse to do this to a child as it is not the child's choice as they are too young to make this level of decision.
Then these issues would not occur as all would develop normally and then any changes could be made to a developed body and when the person is old enough to make an informed choice

And who benefits?

Drugs companies, as you say.

Also scientists and plastic surgeons looking for status and building careers by being the first in this brave new world.

Politicians who want to appear woke by supporting this (but not digging too deeply into what they're actually supporting)

Magazines, websites, journalists and social commentators who congratulate each other for writing about the next new thing, again without thinking too hard.

Parents with munchausens who get attention for their transed child.

Possibly also predatory paedophiles who have a supply of older children still with under developed genitals.

The children, short term, who don't want to have to deal with a puberty they don't want and - for some - who may enjoy their new status.. But not those same children, long term. They won't benefit from this as adults. Much better if they'd been helped to exist in their bodies and given support through puberty. They're being horribly exploited. It's a fucking scandal.

That’s actually really sad, naivetyisthenewblack. Jenning’s parents should be ashamed of themselves. They haven’t just let their child down but permitted their child to be physically abused and have a half life. Jennings seems very young for their age.

This is one of the crucial issues. Kids not old enough to get tattoos are being mutilated because someone has told them their body is wrong. It is horrendous.

But if you speak out you’re a Nazi.

I have never understood how it can be seen as acceptable to stop puberty in children. After all there is more to puberty than having periods, growing hair and breasts etc. Hormones play a vital role in our body. I wouldn't expect children to understand this cause they are children but I would expect adults such as parents and especially Drs to think about the long term implications of stopping puberty. The body doesn't have a pause button ultimately they are stopping natural bodily growth and expecting it to just be able to carry on as normal.

I just do NOT understand this gender reassignment. I am trying really hard. I am totally confused !

I worry about the long - term mental effects, as we know the brain changes a lot during puberty and these children will miss out on that. We already know blockers affect IQ, but the potential effects on other aspects of mental maturity also worry me.

Dinosaur - who do you think has a vested interest? The author of this article (a mum with a gender non conforming child), or the big pharmaceuticals whose aim is to sell blockers followed by cross sex hormones for life? Seriously, you think this article is biased?

There's an agenda behind this. Has anyone else noticed that every single article regarding about trans on the Guardian doesn't allow comments?

Thanks for posting here OP - i had no idea and also thought that puberty blockers were just a pure pause button - had never thought about it and accepted common tittle-tattle as fact. Never knew they could be so dangerous but it seems obvious now really that any drug so powerful that it can affect major body processes will of course have hormonal side effects.

There was a really interesting Louis Theroux documentary on " trans " children and their parents. He discussed puberty blockers a lot in that with the parents and I'm sure there was at least one child who was taking them and then changed their mind but I may be wrong

www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b05qkzt2/louis-theroux-transgender-kids