Janice Turner The Times 21/2/20 Giving puberty blocker to ‘trans’ children is a leap into the unknown

[AnotherNightWatering]

Looks like there'll be more in The Times this weekend!

Weekend Essay: A landmark legal review will examine claims that confused young people are being subjected to a giant medical experiment, says Janice Turner

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/giving-puberty-blocker-to-trans-children-is-a-leap-into-the-unknown-x3g37sb7f

(Sorry, I still can't get that free link to work.)

Janice 💪

Thanks so much Janice.

I've just picked up this initial paragraph from The Times but sadly, do not have a share token to offer.

Please let it be true.

"Ministers are expected to drop plans to make it easier for people to change their gender amid concerns about the impact on children... The consultation, which was launched in 2018 by Theresa May, proposed to change the law so that people would be able to officialy transition simply by making a declaration of their gender... The proposals to change the Gender Recognition Act have met with criticism from some feminist groups, whose members are concerned about the prospect of trans people being able to use single-sex spaces. Ministers are also concerned about the impact the proposals could have on children, who are being helped to transition while still developing their “decision-making capabilities”."

There's another thread on that piece, Teds, which has a link.

Janice has her normal Saturday column too btw, which is about the value (and undervaluing) of care workers - which may also be of interest to feminists.

Thank you, Errol.

Janice Turner is worth her weight in gold.

There's a thread in her care workers piece with a link now.

I bought a paper copy of The Times today to give them some support. Janice Turner has been doing sterling work on this issue.

Cherie Blair has just tweeted Janice Turner's article.

Getting some stick from TRAs.

Caroline Flint on Twitter:
"A must read. People rage at importing chlorinated chicken but importing Ferring Pharmaceuticals' puberty blockers to be used on young children is met with silence. Apparently since 2013 they have donated £1.4m to the Lib Dems. I hope Labour hasn't taken any money."

Not the first time she has spoken out:
www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/london-life/caroline-flint-girls-rights-must-not-be-forgotten-in-the-trans-debate-a3696461.html

Janice Turner is so bloody impressive. That's the clearest and most convincing article I've ever read on this topic.

Fantastic article. She is so brave. Everything is so clear, links are made, dangers made explicit. How can any reasonable person object to it? Well done, Janice

It’s a brilliant article. What I can’t see in there is reference to the effects no puberty will have on brain development?

It says 'GIDS admits it has no idea how freezing puberty affects the fast-developing teenage brain. '

Ah ok. She’s managed to get it all in 👌🏼

I think the fact that Cherie Blair has tweeted it demonstrates that this is now out in the open. People are starting to understand what is going on. More importantly, they are losing their fear of speaking out. It's brilliant news - even a year ago people were still scared of stating their opinion publicly. The floodgates are about to open.

Also good news re Caroline Flint, though of course now she's no longer an MP she doesn't have to exercise the same caution she did before.

Cherie Blair has just tweeted Janice Turner's article.

Gosh. How incredibly brave of her. If nothing else is a clear sign that the paradigm has shifted? It's a retweet by Cherie Blair. Known for speaking truth to power.

It is such a shame that this article is so hard to access.

The Times allows non-subscribers to read two articles a week which I think is pretty fair. Good journalism costs money.

Is that account that's shared it genuinely Cherie Blair? No blue tick and

It looks genuine to me. If it's a parody then someone has been working bloody hard at it for a decade. Also Tony Blair came out with an admonishment of Labour's obsession with trans politics recently, so it fits.

Also Tony Blair came out with an admonishment of Labour's obsession with trans politics recently, so it fits.

Let’s hope Cherie didn’t leave her phone unlocked while she nipped to the loo.

Fantastic piece.

It’s a brilliant article. What I can’t see in there is reference to the effects no puberty will have on brain development?

I don't think it's fully known yet. There have been concerns that development will be adversely affected (seems blooming obvious to me!) but I'm not sure studies have proven it yet in the same way as bone density. Maybe she's being cautious about conjecture.

I think the problem is that it's almost impossible to analyse in terms of effect on cognitive skills as we wouldn't be able to measure if other stressors have affected a particular skill or area of the brain in humans, as we are all so different anyway.

What is measurable is the impact on things like the pituitary gland, and associated endocrine systems.

It is possible to draw similarities with what's been found in sheep studies to brain composition/ structure, which we know is responsible for certain skills eg spatial awareness or higher order thinking. Sheep apparently follow a very similar pattern of puberty brain development, and also show similar differences between the sexes.

What is significant is what happens to the brain during normal puberty in the teen years; there's a huge hormone driven physical restructuring and reorganisation. Young children who've suffered abuse and have actually had a level cognitive damage, can sometimes, with huge amounts of the right support, over come some aspects of the damage during the teen years as a result of the process.

There are an increasing number of books around the teen brain (audible showed me the other day!). At it's simplest, the areas of the brain responsible for higher order, less impulsive actions begin to develop further and become able to override the impulsivity of the amygdala.

This was literally the first paper that came up through google, hippocampus, teen brain. It looks at the impact of drugs and alcohol on the development of the frontal cortex:
While the frontal cortex undergoes substantial and rapid structural and functional changes during adolescence, significant developmental changes also occur in the medial temporal lobe, specifically the hippocampus, which is responsible for learning and memory

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6028523/

I accidentally came across an earlier sheep study looking at effect of blockers on the brain. it may explain why girl's outcomes are not as positive as boys who are treated for gd.

https://www.gla.ac.uk/news/archiveofnews/2012/july/headline2372600_en.html

Interestingly the results also showed that the emotional response of males, but not females, was significantly altered when puberty was blocked.”

This Is the paper I was trying to find, it was done on male sheep and key outcomes are below:

www.sciencedirect.com/topics/biochemistry-genetics-and-molecular-biology/testosterone

Indeed, a growing body of evidence supports numerous and diverse autocrine, paracrine and endocrine roles for GnRH/GnRHa and GnRHR outside the pituitary gland

*Highlights

Peripubertal GnRHa impaired long-term spatial reference memory.

This GnRHa-effect was not counteracted with testosterone replacement in rams.

Traverse times of spatial orientation and learning tasks were unaffected by GnRHa.

GnRHa exaggerated emotional reactivity during these spatial tasks.

Testosterone replacement decreased emotional reactivity and motivation in tasks.*

Somewhere among the above I noticed there was an impact on the size of the amygdala, not sure what; a larger amygdala is implicated in anxiety disorders.

Sorry the third link, the second sheep study, should be to this

www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306453016305595