'I was worried I'd start growing an Adam's apple'

[ThatsWhenTheCannibalismStarted]

An awful lot to unpack in this BBC article: 'I was worried I'd start growing an Adam's apple'

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-60395731.amp

The BBC are overly invested in the promotion of gender ideology. I hope it comes back to bite them. They have learned nothing from their previous mistakes.

grahamlinehan.substack.com/p/the-bbc-are-sleepwalking-into-another?r=8aqhg&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

So boys don’t want their voices to drop it to grow Adam’s apples. I’m not even going to touch the pros and cons for boys. The article doesn’t spell out any benefits for girls though. Given blocking puberty stunts growth, what is the benefit for girls of transitioning young supposed to be? Has anyone from the pro child transitioning side actually come up with an explanation of how this would help ftm trans people pass more convincingly as adults?

I was scared sick ( physically ) about the thought of boobs

It wasn't puberty blockers I needed

( and the answer to the question above is girls don't matter even though most young transgender people are female )

Yes @anothersmahedmug I was absolutely mortified when my body started to change and wanted no part of it, or anything it signified.

That article seemed incredibly confused. At least the medical professionals seemed to be putting a lot of emphasis on the mental health side of it.
I’m always curious when I hear about people working in the field who have transgender kids, about which came first -the job or the child’s dysphoria.

Yeah, I didn't even know where to start with the analysis @Anotherhill! All over the place, isn't it?

Really good point about the chicken and the egg. Looking at some of the high profile mums (and it does seem to be mums) it would seem the gender non-conforming child comes first, and the activist careers follow

I would guess the article was written by someone with a pro gender ideology viewpoint and has been edited.

They didn't get rid of the mimsy language though

'gender affirming hormones' = cross sex hormones

and calling hormones that make you grow tits, or make you grow facial hair 'gender affirming' does rather 'affirm' that 'gender' is all about the way you look, doesn't it?

and as for 'chest reconstruction surgery' = in this case, implanting fake breasts on a teenaged boy, well words fail me.

Rather than having to wait to be put under the knife, the greatest failure Maddi has suffered from in my view is no one seems to have asked them why they don't want to be a boy.

They were just put on cross sex hormones (by the sounds of things, they were unable to get puberty blockers. They view that as bad. Given that puberty blockers are proven to damage IQ and bone density, I view that as a narrow escape for them), and then no one spoke to them for 2 years.

That's absolutely shocking. However you slice it, this was a child with a serious mental health issue, and no one even addressed it? I mean, what the fuck?

I do wonder, where are all the gay children these days?
Are gay children now told they're "in the wrong body" or that they're "trans"?

Ooops, half asleep — i thought these were two different cases. Heartbreaking for either sex.

@DeeplyMovingExperience I've seen surveys showing the proportion of bisexual people has increased, especially in younger cohorts and I can't help wondering if some of that is because they're worried about seeming phobic for having a single sexual orientarion and sexual boundaries

@BernardBlackMissesLangCleg that's exactly what I thought! Like it was written by two peole and smashed together. 'Feminising genital surgery' is closer to what it actually is but 'chest reconstruction' wtf?! It's a very confused piece

'Feminising genital surgery' is closer to what it actually is*

*closer than 'sex change' or 'gender affirming' or all the other euphamisms

That's absolutely shocking. However you slice it, this was a child with a serious mental health issue, and no one even addressed it? I mean, what the fuck?

That's what I got from that article. A child had mental health issues for several years before being assessed, then was put on hormones after 6 months. How many appointments was that? Was the option of acceptance of their body thoroughly explored?

It was concerning that the point was made that many children were on drugs bought illegally, allegedly because of the long waiting lists. It implies that there is a certain treatment pathway, which these children will be placed on, and they’re only doing it illegally because they didn’t get it from a clinic.

But if the waiting list was shortened and the clinic was ethical and didn’t prescribe puberty blockers and/or cross sex hormones until a thorough psychiatric assessment had been carried out (perhaps frequently resulting in the decision being made that those drugs were not applicable for that patient) presumably they’d be almost as likely to go down the illegal route, as they’ve obviously already made up their minds.

Worrying that articles such as this never seem to question whether the treatment sought is actually appropriate at all. It needs to be stressed at every stage that obtaining treatment without a diagnosis is not safe and never can be.

Instead there’s this this wishy washy assumption that they’re getting the right treatment, but it’s fault of the waiting list that they’re getting it less safely. That these children might not just be at risk because the drugs aren’t being properly controlled, but also that they, or their parent are bypassing the all-important diagnostic examination and as a result placing a child on altogether the wrong treatment never seems to be raised.

Whilst Susie Green seems to have gone quiet. Her Twitter seems to be focussed on opposing police cuts, supporting Andy Burnham and banning fois gras, etc. Very little about trans or indeed Mermaids. Perhaps it is tough being Cis in a Trans world. Perhaps she has wider political ambitions. Perhaps she has moved on from being a fierce mother of a trans child and has realised that the arguments for early intervention are not so black and white.

Why is this article worth of the news website? Is this not an option piece?

That said, it does appear that so far, GPs seem to be quite resistant to being dragged in to prescribing puberty blockers or cross sex hormones “while you wait for your specialist appointment”. If these drugs, and the pathway, were really so harmless, and the decision to start them so well accepted, I’m pretty sure they’d be doing it by now. That they’re not seems to me to be quite significant.

Its so worrying . Puberty sucks it just does theres no escaping it. But the increasing numbers of children so traumatised by the idea of a natural phase in our lives is disturbing.

So much so they'd rather risk ending up like that poor Leo in the Swedish case , with a spine of an.80 year old than go through it.

Where are these thoughts/notions coming from?. As I said no one enjoys puberty. But we didn't used to think we'd die or hurt ourselves when it happened?

This can only have cone from the parents surely ?. What are they saying when they explain to their young children?