Mermaids review

[Glinner]

Good news for people who don't believe gender non-conforming children should be told they're in the 'wrong' body, and may need a lifetime of drugs and/or surgery to 'fix' that.

twitter.com/lecanardnoir/status/1074664349854298113

from the indefatigable @Mrkhtake2

twitter.com/mrkhtake2/status/1075052199921807360

^^
Copy of the recording

Wish I'd listened to the whole thing earlier (although what I heard was enough)

Why is it that the powers that be don't want this message widely shared? Why always behind closed doors?

I have said before it is most telling that the 'transphobic/hateful/violent/bigoted' etc etc meetings and talks of groups like LAWS, WPUK and Standing for Women are recorded and made available for wider audiences.

I'd love to see 'woo debunkers' turn their gaze on this. I'm thinking of people like Ben Goldacre, David Colquhoun, Edvard Ernst not to mention our own bowlofbabelfish.

Ben Goldacre was excellent on the 'BrainGym' package which went into schools some while back in terms of highlighting how ludicrous it was in scientific terms.

18 mins 33:

"Puberty blocker medication, or puberty blockers as they are known, they don’t make any changes, so they are completely reversible. What it does is it puts a pause button n the glatuortry? gland and it just frees up puberty really . Not growth, just puberty."

Sorry, should read "or blockers as they are known"

Take the blockers away and biological puberty will re-commence. its been used globally for over 40 years in a condition called precocious puberty- that’s where you can get a child of say five or six and when puberty begins, so if you give them this medication til they get to about 12 take the medication away and in 3-6 months biological puberty will recommence and we know that people have gone on to have healthy adult lives, have children so you know, it’s safe to use and until you’re 16 that's the only thing available but it does provide IMMENSE relief from the dysphoria.

It’ll also prevent the secondary sex characteristics meaning that it is less physical, it does mean there’s less physical intervention in later life if they decide to go down that path.

Excuse the shoddy transcription - but you get the gist!

Puberty blockers are safe. You can still have kids and lead normal lives yay!

Freezes puberty not frees up, sorry. Trying to transcribe quickly while it's still available

It’ll also prevent the secondary sex characteristics meaning that it is less physical, it does mean there’s less physical intervention in later life if they decide to go down that path.

Yeah...and boys whose genitals don't develop have real problems if they want SRS, don't they?

What it does is it puts a pause button n the glatuortry? gland
The pituitary gland.. in the brain.

UGH. I couldn't keep listening to that. I got as far as her talking about small men with the implication that not being a big male makes you female (wtf) and bloody Barbie and GI Joe.
All they're doing is reinforcing regressive gender stereotypes but saying it's actually progressive because you're allowed to choose which one to be
Bloody offensive sexist claptrap.

Pituitary gland, thanks!
Stars, the second clip is the eye/ear opener. Worth moving on to that just to hear the challenges and responses.

you're allowed to choose which one to be

You're not really allowed to choose, it seems you are forcefully encouraged to pick based on things you like, or how small you are.

The pituitary gland.. in the brain.

Yes, this is a drug that targets the brain.

It’s not some magic bullet that targets your genitals directly.

I wonder if Green will be seeking a court injunction on this

small men with the implication that not being a big male

Plenty of Big Offence there then.

I wonder if Green will be seeking a court injunction on this

Thinks this through. A proposed grant for £500,000 to provide training and support is being scrutinised because of a critical newspaper article. A tape of one of Mermaid's training sessions comes to light. Mermaids gets an injunction to keep the tape out of the public realm because....because perhaps they consider that the quality of the training does not stand up to scrutiny. I think not.

If puberty blockers are reversible (and I think they are - as a PP said, they are sometimes given to children who are starting puberty too early, then stopped when the child is of an appropriate age to start puberty) then why is it such a dreadful thing to prescribe them, under proper supervision, to a child with gender dysphoria?

Children who have precocious puberty only have them for a minimal length of time, until they are of an age to cope so a few months or year or so. They block the brain from producing the hormones that stimulate the ovaries or testes. People take them for menopause problems where they shut the reproductive system down for a few weeks, or for prostrate cancers. They are brutal and have side effects. Taking them for a prolonged period of time is more of a problem. They are not tested for this. They are not actually tested for use in children at all.

Puberty does more than mature the reproductive organs - it works with other growth hormones so there are effects on growth, bone density and brain maturation which are not studied.

ReanimatedSGB

My understanding is that it is possible to delay puberty for a certain length of time, I'm not sure how long. The drugs also have a risk of serious side effects so should surely be avoided if possible?

It is also the case that once on PBs, few will come off. You could argue it is because the young person is sure they are trans. I think it's more likely that a child who feels different to their peers pre puberty is going to feel even more different and fit in less when those peers develop both physically and emotionally during puberty.

Hmm. Many drugs have side effects but are prescribed and taken because the patient finds the side effects less awful than the condition the drugs are being taken to alleviate. In some cases, the distress of the trans/gender disphoric child is so intense over the bodily changes that are starting that the child, the child's parents and the prescribing doctor agree that puberty blockers are a better option than not. This does not seem so terribly unreasonable.

Yes, Thingy, it doesn't actually 'buy time' as pretty much most of the children who start them will go through with cross sex hormones at a later date.
Without them the desistance rate is about 80%.

Also, 'pausing' puberty and then allowing it to begin later on is a completely different kettle of fish from preventing puberty altogether while flooding the endocrine system with cross-sex hormones in quantities it's not designed to cope with. We literally don't have a clue what are the long-term health consequences of the latter.

The side effects of puberty blockers and cross sex hormones that are known include zero sexual function, sterility, and half the expected bone density.
That cannot possibly be better than counselling and waiting until adulthood for treatment, given that 80% of children desist.