Recently published by Dutch clinicians. It looks at whether or not children/adolescents are capable of giving informed consent to puberty blocker treatment.
link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00787-022-02076-6
It’s a qualitative study and many of the comments from the young people, parents and clinicians are troubling- e.g.
“I think I had thought about it [starting treatment with puberty suppression or not starting this treatment] pretty well. But as a 12 or 13 year-old, you can’t really judge what it’s all about. So I had thought about it [starting the treatment or not], but only as much as I was able to at the time [I decided to start with the treatment] (Interview with a transgirl who continued PS; age at start PS: 12.9; age at interview: 17.8)”
“It doesn’t really mean much to a 12 year-old when you’re talking about osteoporosis. She [my daughter] understood [what osteoporosis meant], but she thought 'what does it matter’, we’ll see about that later (Interview with a parent of a transgirl who continued PS; age at start PS: 12.9; age at interview: 17.8)”
“I did have the feeling that I stood still while the rest [my peers who did go through pubertal development] went on [...] [Before starting the treatment with puberty suppression] I hadn’t thought very much about what that could do to you mentally. [...] I was quite depressed during that time. And [...] I think that it [the fact that I had the feeling I stood still while my peers went through their pubertal development] also played a part in how I felt [depressed] at the time. I had not foreseen that beforehand (Interview with a transgirl who continued PS; age at start PS: 12.0; age at interview: 18.1)”
“My parents mostly investigated it [what treatment with puberty suppression entails] for me, because I really didn’t want to know anything about it […] I just couldn’t talk about it and I didn’t want to look anything up [regarding the treatment] because doing so reminded me of being [a] transgender [person]. But because my parents are like that, I ended up where I am now. Otherwise, it would have been a different story (Interview with a transgirl who continued PS; age at start PS: 12.0; age at interview: 18.1)”
“Yes, we as parents and I [the mother] in particular [have weighed the pros and cons of the treatment]. [...] I like to know what to expect, so I read up on things a bit more. My son isn’t like that; he hears it [the possibility to start the treatment], accepts it, and goes on (Interview with a parent of a transboy who continued PS; age at start PS: 11.9; age at interview: 18.5)”