Article on the side-effects of Lupron

[ResistanceIsNecessary]

Mayday 4 Women shared this. Whilst its use for transitioning is not mentioned, it is known to be widely used to delay puberty as part of the transitioning process.

www.statnews.com/2017/02/02/lupron-puberty-children-health-problems/

Worth reading and absolutely raises questions about the long term implications and safety associated with Lupron. This suggests that "watch and wait" would be prudent for prepubescent children who identify as trans.

I'll just post this before anyone says Lupron is not prescribed this way in the UK;

''The UK endocrinologists at GIDS prescribe the GnRH analog called Triptorelin. Although slightly different to Lupron all these drugs are in the same class of GnRH analogs and all have the same mechanism of action. The mechanistic safety issues will most likely apply to the whole class of drugs.''

''There have been no long term studies on the effectiveness of puberty blockers and it is unknown whether interrupting natural puberty alters the natural trajectory and perhaps resolution of gender dysphoria in children.''

www.transgendertrend.com/puberty-blockers/

This is really disturbing. How many children are now currently taking this drug, I wonder.

The possibility of a future class action against the medical porfession is already looking likely, but this suggests that it could be even more serious. This information needs to be spread far more widely.

How many report cards does a drug need before they start being more accurate about the side effects? It seems crazy that there have been 10,000 and that two well documented side effects aren’t even listed.

It’s a good article. GnRH analogues as a class should not be being prescribed off label like this.

Note the 800 million plus dollar a year market for them - it costs about a billion dollars to bring a drug to market and then you only have a limited timespan to make your money back before it goes off patent (15 years from patenting it and that includes years spent on trials.) so this one is a money spinner.

UK doctors cannot receive perks like the ones mentioned by the way - legally these days a branded mug is about as much as is allowed. The regulatory situation in the USA is rather different, but even then what this article describes is quasi legal at best. Again, very worrying.

Very interesting to see this quote: “We are currently conducting a specific review of nervous system and psychiatric events in association with the use of GnRH agonists, [a class of drugs] including Lupron, in pediatric patients,” the FDA said in a statement.”

That means there has been a critical mass of adverse effects reported.

The problem with drugs like this is that they’re being touted as some kind of harmless pause button - take them for a bit and stop if you want. But that is NOT the reality. These drugs affect multiple systems - they’re an extremely blunt tool and have effects all over the body. There’s also no long term follow up that’s been done on them.

These drugs should only be prescribed for a very specific, very narrow set of conditions - that they’re being used off label in the UK is very worrying.

There are going to be a lot of damaged lives from this. And lawsuits. Very, very sad.

It needs to be a huge global scandal. I can't quite understand why it isn't.

This is very concerning. I hope the parents of transgender children take note of this and refuse to give these types of drugs to their children. Otherwise lives will be completely ruined.

Triggering investigation depends on a number of factors - population taking the drug, number and severity of reports etc.

I’d recommend Ben Goldacre’s book ‘Bad Pharma’ for anyone wanting a good summary of how advertising and marketing practices affect prescribing and reporting practices. In a nutshell, doctors who are heavily marketed to prescribe less efficiently and report less.

If anyone has ever taken Lupron or similar for endometriosis or fertility reasons I’m sure they’d be the first to say that it is not some benign ‘hormone pausing’ medication. It can have serious psychological effects not to mention physical effects. I would never give this to a child, particularly one likely to have concurrent vulnerability to mental health issues, until it has been shown to be safe in paediatric samples.

As of about a year ago, the NHS was reporting 800 children prescribed these drugs. Given the increase in referrals, we must be at about 1,000 by now. And that excludes anyone using private clinics or those few being prescribed by GPs outside of GIDs such as Webberley.

This is horrifying. Why are Mermaids and other campaigning groups trying to normalise puberty blockers?

1000? Heck that’s alarming.

There has been a MNer who has taken Lupron (or similar) for an adult health condition and the side effects she reported were horrifying.

Does anyone recall that poster?

If it's 800 plus in the UK, imagine how many in the US and Canada, where gatekeeping has all but disappeared.

@TammySwansonTwo

Who is regularly ignored when she asks our trans advocate posters to comment on her experience. Really quite something to witness.

Sorry that was a reply to you Shots

Thanks Eresh!

It wasn’t me but I’ve taken it and a similar drug. Anxiety, insomnia, hot flushes (maybe not applicable to kids?), memory problems, plus of course all the effects on sex drive etc. Really worryingly, one of the GnRH agonists that I took and I can’t remember which one left me genuinely questioning the point of life and if the world would be better off without me. It really scared me.

1000 in the UK is horrifying. I dread to think what the numbers must be across the Atlantic Lang. Unbelievable that doctors would put children through this.

Triptorelin otherwise known as Decapeptyl is what I am given every 3 months. I recently had my second injection of it.

I would say that Decapeptyl is far preferable to Cyproterone Acetate.

It says something about priorities that the immediate reaction to that article in the comments here is that we must stop using puberty blockers while entirely ignoring the disturbing point that drugs are being prescribed to increase height.

snappity increasing height IS often part of the reason they’re used for stopping precocious puberty, as most children don’t grow past puberty significantly, so there’s more clinical rationale for that than for using these drugs to block puberty in the case of gender identity questioning. If used for increasing height as part of stopping precocious puberty they are being used as licenced.

The numbers being given them for height are well below those for blocking as well (recombinant somatotropin is now available thank goodness after the human derived stuff which used to be used.)

These drugs should NOT be being prescribed at all - they’re being used off label in children questioning gender identity.

What’s even more concerning is that lobby groups are pushing these drugs as a safe and harmless pause button on puberty - that is not ethically acceptable.

This is very concerning. I hope the parents of transgender children take note of this and refuse to give these types of drugs to their children. Otherwise lives will be completely ruined.

That's scaremongering. You are extrapolating reports concerning one drug (Lupron) to other drugs (eg gosselerin acetate and Triptorelin) without any evidence.

Right. Babel has explained the situation perfectly, as ever.

Let's move on with the topic of the thread, which is GnRH analogs in general and not be distracted by flailing attempts to pretend otherwise.

I am also concerned at the potential 5-10 point drop in IQ associated with use of puberty blockers and overall cognitive development generally.

You are extrapolating reports concerning one drug (Lupron) to other drugs (eg gosselerin acetate and Triptorelin) without any evidence.

They are the same class of drug acting on the same pathway via the same mechanisms. That’s why ‘Lupron and the GnRH analog class’ are the subject of investigation. They’re almost the same thing.

They will and do share mechanisms of action, side effects etc. They are all the same class of drug. If one member of the class has such broad side effects the other will too.

An analogy: when someone goes to the doc and gets prescribed an SSRI for depression. They’re all the same class of drug acting in the same way. There will be minor differences in action but a GP will be happy to switch a patient from say Prozac to sertraline because they are the same class of drug doing the same thing.

Did anyone get a reply from the BBC by the way if they queried the statement on their website that these drugs are harmless? I believe a few of us complained about it,